个人信息概念的反思:以“识别”要件为中心

Rethinking the Concept of Personal Information:Focusing on“Identification”Elements

定向广告技术大行其道,引发了对IP地址、Cookie和IMEI号等标识符是否是个人信息的争议.产生争议的根源在于个人信息“识别”要件的模糊.识别可以分为“物理识别”和“虚拟识别”2类.虚拟识别是“识别”要件的应有之义.其次,识别有“识别身份”与“唯一标识”2种解释路径.采取唯一标识的解释路径有利于提供清晰的适用标准,与匿名化制度中“重识别”的概念相统一并解决了“直接识别”存疑的困境.最后,个人信息可依据是否能够识别到物理世界中的特定自然人,划分为“现实身份信息”与“数字身份信息”,并对现实身份信息采取更严格的保护措施.

Target advertising technology has become popular,causing fierce debate over whether IP addresses,cookies,and IMEI numbers are personal information.The source of the dispute lies in the vagueness of the“identification”of personal information.Identification can be divided into“physical identification”and“virtual identification”.Virtual identification is the necessary meaning of“identification”.Secondly,identification has two interpretation approaches in Chinese:“recognizing someone”and“single out someone”.Adopting the interpretation approach of“single out someone”is conducive to providing clear applicable standards,unifying with the concept of“re-identification”in the anonymization concept,and solving the dilemma of“direct identification”.Finally,personal information can be divided into“real identity information”and“digital identity information”based on whether it can identify a specific natural person in the physical world,more stringent protection measures for real identity information will be taken.