论微信好友列表信息的法律性质及保护——以微信读书案为例

On the Legal Nature and Protection of WeChat Friend List Information—Take the WeChat Reading Case as an Example

微信作为中国即时通讯应用程序的代表,拥有庞大的用户及用户信息,故而大量应用程序采用微信账号登录形式。在这种情形下微信中的好友列表信息存在法律性质不明的问题,知情同意原则在第三方应用程序收集好友列表信息时几乎形同虚设,用户未被给予信息自决权。因此,应当判断好友列表信息的法律性质,在《民法典》的框架下,以规制应用程序平台方的收集、使用行为为切入口,结合《常见类型移动互联网应用程序必要个人信息范围规定》不断完善必要个人信息的收集范围,赋予用户充分的信息自决权,探索微信用户好友列表信息保护问题。

WeChat, as a representative of Chinese instant messaging applications, has a large number of users and user information, so a large number of applications use WeChat account login form. In this case, the legal nature of the friend list information in WeChat is unclear, and the principle of informed consent is almost null and void when third-party applications collect friend list information, and users are not given the right to self-determination of information. Therefore, the legal nature of the friend list information should be determined, and under the framework of the Civil Code, the collec-tion and use behavior of the application platform should be regulated as an entry point to continu-ously refine the scope of collection of necessary personal information and improve the user’s right to information self-determination, so as to explore the protection of WeChat users’ friend list infor-mation.