死者个人信息权益保护制度的适用困境及完善路径

Challenges and Improvement Pathways in the Protection System for Deceased Persons'Personal Information Rights

我国现行立法虽为死者个人信息权益的保护提供了规范路径,却存在诸多疏漏之处,引发死者个人信息权益保护制度适用的内外罅隙。主要表现为死者个人信息权益的归属不明、死者个人信息权益的意定行使之困境以及死者个人信息权益的法定行使规则不清之困境。对此,宜回归权利保护本质,以保护死者人格权益为根基。在完善死者个人信息权益的意定行使规则方面,一是确立死者个人信息权益的意定行使优先于法定行使规则;二是明确自然人可以安排不局限于近亲属的他人为自己死后个人信息权益的行使主体;三是允许自然人指定行权主体对具体类别的个人信息行使权利;四是允许自然人指定安排自己死后权利行使主体享有的具体权利。在完善死者个人信息权益的法定行使规则方面,一是明确死者个人信息权益的保护从自然人死亡时开始,不存在死者生前意定安排则自动进入法定保护机制;二是明晰近亲属作为死者个人信息权益的法定行权主体之顺位;三是明确法定行权所指之个人信息权益范围;四是明确行权主体与侵权主体混同时应当由其他近亲属行权。

While current Chinese legislation includes special provisions for protecting deceased persons'personality interests,providing a normative pathway for safeguarding their personal information rights,there remain numerous gaps that create both internal and external challenges in the application of these protective mechanisms.The main issues include ambiguity regarding whether the provisions protect the rights of close relatives or the deceased,difficulties in exercising designated rights related to deceased persons'personal information,and unclear statutory rules for exercising these rights.To address these challenges,it is advisable to return to the fundamental essence of right protection,grounding it in the protection of deceased persons'personality rights.For improving the designated exercise of rights related to deceased persons'personal information,the following measures are proposed:first,establishing the priority of designated exercise of rights over statutory exercise;second,clarifying that natural persons can arrange for any designated person,not limited to close relatives,to exercise rights related to their personal information after death;third,allowing natural persons to designate specific categories of personal information for right exercise;and fourth,permitting natural persons to specify the exact rights their designated executors may exercise after their death.Regarding the improvement of statutory rules,the proposals include:first,clarifying that protection begins at the time of death,automatically entering statutory protection mechanisms in the absence of pre-death arrangements;second,establishing a clear order of priority among close relatives as statutory executors;third,defining the scope of personal information rights under statutory execution;and fourth,specifying that other close relatives should exercise rights when conflicts exist between executors and infringers.