I. Introduction
The development of big data technology has brought great changes to scientific and technological progress, information enjoyment and business development. The development trend of networking in social activities endows personal information with rich social and economic value, making it a strategic resource of great significance to the country, society, organizations and even individuals. At the same time, criminal activities related to personal information are also on the rise. In 2009, the Criminal Law Amendment (VII) added "the crime of selling and illegally providing citizens' personal information" and "the crime of illegally obtaining citizens' personal information". 20 15 Amendment to the Criminal Law (IX) integrates the two charges into "the crime of infringing citizens' personal information", expanding the scope of the subject and increasing the punishment. On March 20th, 20 17, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement on Citizens' Personal Information (hereinafter referred to as the Interpretation of 20 17) made specific provisions on the judicial application of the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information.
The author searched the criminal first-instance judgments year by year with "citizens' personal information" on China Judgment Document Network. See the chart 1 for the number of relevant judgments from 2009 to 20 19. The development of crimes against citizens' personal information in China can be divided into four stages: from 2009 to 20 12, the number of such judgments was zero, and few criminal cases related to personal information occurred in practice; From 20 12 to 20 16, the number of judgments began to increase slowly, and the total amount was still small; From 20 16 to 20 17, the number of judgments surged by 2 14.6%, showing a high incidence trend; From 20 16 to 20 19, the growth rate of crime slowed down.
Chart 1
As the object of the crime of infringing citizens' personal information, the connotation, scope and judgment standard of citizens' personal information are of great significance to legislation and judicial application. Article 1 of Interpretation 20 17 clearly defines its concept, but there are still some ambiguities in the definition of citizens' personal information in practice. For example, how to grasp the information range of whereabouts trajectory, how to grasp the scope of real estate information, and how to identify the identifiability of citizens' personal information. From this point of view, in order to accurately identify the crime of infringing citizens' personal information, we should conduct in-depth research on the connotation and extension of its behavior object. This paper intends to make an in-depth analysis of the definition of "citizen's personal information" in Article 253 of the Criminal Law, hoping to provide a useful reference for the determination of this crime in judicial practice.
Second, the criminal law sets the principle of reasonable protection limit of citizens' personal information.
In the era of information network, we should seek an appropriate balance between promoting the development and application of information technology and protecting citizens' personal information security. Criminal law protects citizens' personal information too little or too much, which is not conducive to the normal development of society. The author believes that the reasonable limit of criminal law protection of citizens' personal information should be set based on the following three principles.
(A) the principle of modesty in criminal law
Modesty of criminal law means that criminal law should reasonably set the scope and degree of punishment. When the application of other laws is enough to crack down on an illegal act and protect the corresponding legitimate rights and interests, it should not be stipulated as a crime. When the application of lighter sanctions is enough to crack down on a crime and protect the corresponding legitimate rights and interests, heavier sanctions should not be stipulated. This principle is also the first principle that criminal law should follow when regulating crimes against citizens' personal information.
At present, the legal system of personal information protection in China is not perfect, and there is a lack of pre-existing law. As the last safeguard law, criminal law should pay special attention to upholding the modesty principle of criminal law and strictly controlling the scope and intensity of the crackdown when it first intervenes in the field of personal information protection to regulate the infringement of citizens' personal information. The identification of citizens' personal information is too narrow, which will lead to the failure to protect citizens' legitimate rights and interests and effectively crack down on violations of citizens' personal information; If the scope is too wide, the scope of application of criminal law will be too large, which will lead to the waste of national penalty resources and the reduction of the operability of punishment in practice, hinder the normal free flow of information and violate the principle of modesty of criminal law. It is common in practice that the scope of identification is too wide, such as citizen's name, gender and other personal basic information. Although individuals can be identified to a certain extent, most people don't mind that such personal information is made public. Even if it causes certain harmful results, criminal means are not needed, and pre-existing laws such as civil law and administrative law can be used to remedy it.
(b) The principle of balance between the protection of rights and the flow of information
In the era of big data, with the prominence of information value, the value conflict between personal information protection and information circulation has gradually become prominent. On the one hand, the free flow of information brings many conveniences to the country, society and individuals; on the other hand, it inevitably poses a certain threat to personal life and property safety, social normal order and even national security.
The progress of science and technology and the demand of society make the free circulation of data an irreversible trend. How to balance the relationship between it and the protection of personal rights and interests is a problem that must be considered when using criminal law to regulate the infringement of citizens' personal information. Insufficient protection of personal information will lead to excessive freedom of information circulation, put citizens' personal and property safety in danger and undermine the normal economic order of society; Over-protection goes to the other extreme, which hinders the normal and free flow of information, makes members of society become "information islands", and the whole society will become fragmented, which will also shut out the huge economic benefits that informationization can bring.
Criminal law should only protect personal information with the value and necessity of criminal law protection, and the information subject actively requests protection. One of the functions of law is to coordinate various contradictory interests. Only through legislation and judicature can we balance the protection of personal information rights and the free flow of information and achieve a win-win situation. Efforts should be made to build a complete personal information protection system, which can not only protect citizens' personal and property rights from infringement, but also promote the free flow of information, thus promoting the development and progress of the whole society.
(3) the principle of coordination between personal interests and public interests
It is reasonable and necessary for personal interests to properly transfer public interests, because public interests often involve public security and social order, and are also the guarantee for realizing personal interests. However, the premise of this transfer is that the public interests exchanged are legal and legitimate, and will not cause undue infringement on personal privacy and safety.
Public safety is a typical reason to restrict citizens' personal information. For the needs of social management, the government and judicial departments often disclose information to a certain extent. The development of information network also makes big data technology play an increasingly important role in social security management activities, but it also inevitably involves touching the boundaries of citizens' personal interests, leading to the conflict between public management needs and the maintenance of personal rights and interests. Compared with the public power backed by the state machine, citizens' personal information security is in a weak position, so it is the direction we should work hard to keep up with the development of informatization.
The protection of personal information of public figures is another important embodiment of this principle. Professor Wang Liming divides public figures into political public figures and social public figures. For the former, personal information can be divided into two categories: one is personal information related to citizens' supervision rights or public interests, which needs to make appropriate concessions to public interests; The other is purely personal privacy information that has nothing to do with work. Because this part of personal information has nothing to do with its political stance, it should be completely protected like ordinary people. For public figures, some of their personal information is active or wants to be exposed, so they can get the corresponding exchange benefits, and criminal law does not need to protect this part of information; Some information, such as height, birthday, preferences, etc. , are open, but in line with people's reasonable expectations of the profession, will not harm the interests of the information subject. For this kind of information, it is not within the scope of criminal law protection; However, for personal information such as the subject's address, whereabouts, trajectory, etc., in practice, many fanatical fans obtain the star's address and itinerary information through human flesh search, and peek at the star's personal privacy and sneak shots. This kind of behavior that seriously affects personal peace and basic rights and interests should be regulated by criminal law.
Third, the concept, characteristics and related categories of citizens' personal information in criminal law.
(A) the concept of citizens' personal information
Concept is an indispensable tool to solve legal problems.
1. The meaning of "citizen"
People's Republic of China (PRC) citizens refer to people with China nationality. The word "citizen" is used in the crime of infringing citizens' personal information. The author holds the following views on some controversial issues about its meaning:
(1) should include foreigners and stateless persons.
Literally and in common sense, it seems that the "citizen" in China's criminal law should specifically refer to "China citizen". However, the author believes that anyone's personal information can be the object of this crime, and the protection of citizens' personal information in China's criminal law should not be limited to China citizens.
First, Article 153 of the Criminal Law uses "citizens' personal information" instead of "citizens' personal information". The understanding and application of criminal law norms should not be artificially and unnecessarily restricted, and "citizens" should not be limited to China citizens without clearly indicating that they are citizens of China people.
Second, in the information age of global interconnection, excluding the protection of personal information of a large number of foreigners and stateless persons from China's criminal law will condone crimes, resulting in the lack of criminal law protection for foreigners and stateless persons, which is unreasonable and makes it difficult to deal with cases involving infringement of personal information of China people and non-China people in practice.
Third, Chapter III of the Specific Provisions of the Criminal Law "Crimes against Citizens' Personal Rights and Democratic Rights" is not limited to the protection of "China citizens", but also protects the rights of foreigners and stateless persons. Therefore, the protection objects of the crime of infringing citizens' personal information in Chapter III of China's Criminal Law also include the personal information of foreigners and stateless persons. "China provides criminal law protection to China citizens, foreigners and stateless persons in China and foreigners and stateless persons who have been harmed by harmful acts in China without exception."
(2) The deceased and legal persons should not be included.
For the deceased, because they no longer have the right of personality, they cannot become the subject of criminal law. In the field of criminal law, just as destroying a corpse cannot constitute the crime of intentional homicide, the crime of infringing on the personal information of the deceased should not be established. The right of reputation and property rights that may be involved in the personal information of the deceased can be protected by the close relatives of the deceased claiming compensation for mental damage or inheriting property in civil law.
As a legal person, it can't be the subject of personal information of citizens in criminal law. On the one hand, natural persons have personality rights, but legal persons do not. It is only a legal fiction concept and will not be damaged mentally. On the other hand, although corporate information may have great commercial value and economic benefits, it has always been protected by commercial laws such as trade secrets. Therefore, the information of legal persons is not applicable to the protection of citizens' personal information.
2. The meaning of "personal information"
In legal theory, the definition of citizens' personal information mainly includes identity theory, relevance theory and privacy theory.
Identity recognition theory refers to the key attribute in citizens' personal information that can identify the identity of a specific natural person or reflect the activities of a specific natural person. According to the degree of recognition, identifiability can be divided into two ways, that is, direct recognition to directly confirm someone's identity through a single information, and indirect recognition to identify a specific individual by combining other information or comparing and analyzing information. Most scholars who support the recognition theory in academic circles refer to recognition in a broad sense, including both direct recognition and indirect recognition.
Relevance theory holds that all information related to a specific natural person belongs to personal information, including "personal identity information, personal property, basic family situation, dynamic behavior and personal views, as well as other people's related evaluation of the information subject". According to the relevance theory, as long as it has certain relevance with the subject, information belongs to citizens' personal information in the sense of criminal law.
According to the theory of privacy, only personal privacy is the content of personal information guaranteed by law. Privacy theory is mainly advocated by American scholars, which holds that personal information is information that is unwilling to be disclosed to others, and information that excludes others from knowing.
The author believes that it is most desirable to define citizens' personal information in the sense of criminal law through identity theory. Relevance theory leads to the excessive expansion of the scope of criminal law to protect personal information, while privacy theory only limits personal information to the scope of personal privacy information, ignoring personal information that does not belong to personal privacy but is also of criminal law protection value. At the same time, because the definition of privacy is influenced by individual subjectivity, it is difficult to form a clear definition standard in practice. In contrast, the identity theory is more desirable, which not only embodies the fundamental attributes of citizens' personal information that needs criminal law protection, but also has expansibility, and can better adapt to the increasing types of citizens' personal information caused by the development of information technology.
And through combing the legislation and judicature of personal information in China, the viewpoint of identity runs through it.
name
Effective year
Definition of the Core Attribute of "Personal Information"
decision of the standing committee of the national people's congress on strengthening the network information protection
20 12
Identifiability and privacy
Notice on punishing criminal activities that infringe citizens' personal information according to law
20 13
Identifiability and privacy
Provisions on several issues concerning the application of law in the trial of civil disputes over personal rights and interests by using information networks
20 14
privacy
Cyber security law
20 16
Knowledgeability
Interpretation of some issues concerning the application of law in handling criminal cases of infringing citizens' personal information
20 17
Identify and reflect activities.
Chart 2
The Internet Security Law and 20 17 are undoubtedly the most authoritative definitions of citizens' personal information. The Network Security Law adopts the viewpoint of identity theory and defines identifiability as the core attribute of citizens' personal information. The latter adopts the broad concept of "identifiability", which includes both narrow identifiability (identifying the identity of a specific natural person) and reflecting the activities of a specific natural person. The difference between the two expressions is because the protection of citizens' personal information by cyber security law is holistic and basic, while the interpretation of 20 17 takes into account the activity information as highly sensitive information, which has gradually become a protection focus of this crime with the continuous progress of location technology. Therefore, on the basis of adopting the narrow concept of identity information, the emphasis on activity information has been increased, but its essence is still appropriate.
Therefore, citizens' personal information should be defined by identifiability.
(B) the characteristics of citizens' personal information
The "citizen's personal information" in the sense of criminal law embodies its criminal law protection value which is different from the "citizen's personal information" in the broad sense. Clarifying the characteristics of personal information in the field of criminal law is helpful to better identify personal information in the judiciary.
1. recognizable
This is the essential attribute of citizens' personal information. Identifiable means that the identity of a specific natural person can be determined by information, including direct identification and indirect identification. Direct identification means that a single message can directly point to a specific natural person, such as ID number, fingerprint, DNA and other information can correspond to a specific natural person one by one. Indirect identification means that a certain information needs to be combined with other information or compared to identify a specific natural person, such as learning experience, work experience, hobbies and other information needs to be combined with other information to identify a specific information subject.
2. Objective authenticity
Objective authenticity means that citizens' personal information must be an objective and true reflection of the information subject. On the one hand, subjective personal information is extremely difficult to identify specific individuals; On the other hand, the relevant provisions of the current criminal law on the crime of insult or slander are enough to regulate this kind of subjective information. In judicial practice, how to judge the objective authenticity of information is also an important issue. How to scientifically and efficiently identify the objective authenticity of personal information is the direction that judicial organs should strive for. The existing random sampling method is desirable, but not strict enough. In my opinion, we can consider the inversion of the burden of proof. If the criminal suspect can prove that the personal information infringed by him is not objective and true, it does not constitute this crime.
3. Value
The two functions of criminal law are to protect interests and protect human rights. Starting from the function of protecting interests, the crime of infringing citizens' personal information, a natural crime, can only be included in the scope of criminal law regulation if it infringes citizens' legal interests. The key to judge whether the legitimate rights and interests of citizens are infringed is whether the information has value. Value includes not only the economic benefits generated by citizens' personal information, but also the personal rights of citizens. Judging from the personality right attribute of personal information, the disclosure of personal privacy information will infringe on citizens' right to privacy and reputation, and the disclosure of whereabouts information will pose a threat to citizens' personal safety. Judging from the property right attribute of personal information, information is the main property form of society in the information age, which can bring more and more economic benefits to people. "The value of information should be considered only when the practitioner advocates his personal value", and only the information with criminal law protection value is worthy of the state's use of criminal justice resources to protect it.
(C) the difference between personal information and related concepts
Many countries and regions have enacted special laws to protect personal information, but some countries and regions have not adopted the concept of "personal information". The concept of "personal privacy" is adopted in the United States, and the concept of "personal data" is adopted in Europe, and the expression of "personal information" is more common in Asia. These three concepts can be equated, and there are also differences of opinion. Some people think that personal information and personal privacy overlap, but they cannot be completely confused. Others think that personal information contains personal privacy and takes personal data as the carrier. The author believes that it is necessary to make a clear distinction between these three concepts.
1. Personal information and privacy
Regarding the relationship between these two concepts, some scholars think that the former includes the latter, some scholars think that the latter includes the former, and some scholars think that the two are not simply inclusive. The author believes that personal information and personal privacy intersect with each other. Personal information includes general information and private information, and personal privacy includes private information, private activities and private space, so the intersection of the two lies in private information. The two systems are quite different and cannot be confused. First of all, the degree of privacy is different. To a certain extent, the general information of personal information except private information needs to be disclosed by the information subject, such as name, mobile phone number, email address, etc. And personal privacy is high, and individuals are unwilling to disclose it; Secondly, with different judgment criteria, the judgment criteria of personal information are completely objective and can be judged according to whether it is identifiable, authentic and valuable, while personal privacy is more subjective in judgment, and different subjects have different definitions of personal privacy; Finally, personal information has both a passive defense side and an active display side. Information subjects may gain some benefits by actively disclosing some of their personal information, while personal privacy focuses on passive defense. The private information and activities of the subject do not want to be made public, and the privacy space does not want to be violated.
2. Personal information and personal data
The author believes that the difference between personal information and personal data lies in that personal data is an objective and unprocessed original record of the information subject based on the electronic information system, such as the blood test report taken out from the self-service machine after the personal medical examination in the hospital; The latter refers to the content in the data that can have a certain influence on the recipient and guide his decision-making, or the above content that can be obtained after data processing and analysis, such as the result report with health guidance formed after the system or doctor analyzes the blood test report data, in other words, personal information = personal data+analysis and processing.
Fourthly, the judicial identification of citizens' personal information in criminal law.
In judicial practice, there must be some differences in grasping concepts and principles, which need to be discussed in detail. In this part, the author summarizes the identification of general personal information and analyzes some controversial situations.
(A) identification of citizens' personal information
"Identifiability means that personal information can directly or indirectly point to a certain subject." After the above discussion, according to the definition of citizens' personal information in the Cyber Security Law and the explanation No.2017, we can draw that "identifiability" is the core attribute of citizens' personal information, and the second paragraph of Article 3 of the Interpretation confirms this view. Personal information that can identify a specific natural person alone is often easy to judge, and information that can indirectly identify a specific natural person or reflect the activities of a specific natural person by combining other information is often the focus of controversy between the prosecution and the defense in the case, and it is also the most complicated issue in the determination of this crime. In the face of specific cases in practice, whether some relevant information can be identified as "citizens' personal information" can be comprehensively analyzed and judged from three aspects: the subjective purpose of the actor, the importance of information to the personal and property safety of specific natural persons, and the degree of other information that information needs to be combined with.
Take this case as an example: a medical representative in a certain place illegally obtained the bed number, illness and medication of a hospital department in order to give a doctor a drug rebate. The illegally obtained information involved in this case should not be included in the category of "citizens' personal information" in the criminal law. First of all, from the subjective purpose of the actor, he did not realize the purpose of a specific natural person, just to obtain the drug abuse situation; Secondly, judging from the importance of the above information to patients' personal safety, property safety and peace of life, the actor's acquisition of the above information will not infringe on patients' rights and interests; Finally, from the point of view that these information need to be combined with other information, information such as bed number and medication situation can not directly identify individuals, but need to be combined with the patient's ID number to play a direct role in identification. Therefore, the information involved in this case does not belong to "citizens' personal information" protected by criminal law.
(2) Identification of sensitive personal information
Article 5 of Interpretation 20 17 classifies "citizens' personal information" into three categories according to the importance and sensitivity of information, that is, the influence of information on citizens' personal and property safety, and sets different conviction and sentencing standards.
kind
catalogue
The standard of "serious circumstances"
(illegally acquired, sold or provided)
Criteria for "especially serious circumstances" (illegal acquisition, sale or provision)
Particularly sensitive information
Track information, communication content, credit information, property information.
More than 50 articles
More than 500
Highly confidential information
Accommodation records, communication records, health and physiological information, transaction information.
More than 500
More than 5 thousand
Other information
More than 5 thousand
More than 50 thousand
Chart 3
However, in judicial practice, there are still disputes about the application of standards, mainly in the identification of personal sensitive information.
1. How to grasp the scope of "information of whereabouts and tracks"
Track information is extremely sensitive. Once the trajectory information of the information subject is illegally used, it may pose an urgent threat to the personal safety of the obligee. In the interpretation of 20 17, the standard of conviction of track information is the lowest: "illegally obtaining, selling or providing more than 50 pieces of track information" constitutes a crime. Because the interpretation of 20 17 stipulates a very low incrimination standard for track information, its scope should be strictly controlled in judicial identification, and it is limited to information that can directly locate the specific location of a specific natural person, such as vehicle track information and GPS positioning information. In practice, the transaction price of information can also be used as a reference to judge whether it belongs to "trajectory information", because the price of trajectory information is usually the most expensive.
When the actor judges the whereabouts of others after obtaining the ticket information of others, the information contained in the ticket should not be regarded as "the information of the trajectory" as stipulated in the 20 17 Interpretation, because this information can only let the actor know the approximate trajectory of the information subject, but can not accurately locate it.
2. How to grasp the scope of "real estate information"
Real estate information refers to real estate, deposits and other information that can reflect the personal property status of citizens. The judgment of property information can be grasped from two aspects: one is to comprehensively consider subjective and objective factors, because crime should be the result of the unity of subjective and objective; However, considering that the threshold for incriminating sensitive personal information is extremely low, the scope should be strictly grasped in practice.
Take this case as an example: in order to promote vehicle insurance, the actor illegally obtained the owner's name, telephone number, model and other information from the vehicle management office. The information in this case should not be identified as "property information". Because the subjective purpose of the actor is not to infringe on the personal and property safety of the information subject, it will only affect the life peace of the actor at most, so the criminalization standard of the personal information of non-sensitive citizens should be applied.
(3) Identification of public personal information that should not be included in the protection object of this crime.
There are different opinions on whether the personal information disclosed by the information subject belongs to the category of "citizens' personal information". The author thinks that "citizens' personal information" does not have the characteristics of privacy, because article 1 of Interpretation 201does not use the expression of "information involving personal privacy", but takes identification as the judgment standard. Therefore, whether the information is open or not does not affect whether it can be identified as "citizen's personal information".
For the personal information voluntarily disclosed by the obligee, it is obviously legal for the actor to obtain the relevant information, and the subsequent sale and provision should not be considered as a crime at present. The reasons are as follows: First, in China's legislation and judicature, "privacy" has been defined as the core attribute of citizens' personal information, which shows that citizens' personal information is a right separated from privacy to a certain extent, so the crime of infringing citizens' personal information focuses on protecting citizens' privacy and peace of life. The reason why obligees voluntarily or even voluntarily disclose their personal information shows that even if the information is obtained or sold, it will usually not infringe on their personal privacy and peace of life, so it should not be included in the scope of criminal law protection; Second, according to Article 253- 1 of the Criminal Law, selling or providing citizens' personal information to others only constitutes a crime in violation of relevant state regulations. For the public citizen's personal information, the behavior of the actor selling or providing it to others after obtaining it should be presumed to be the general consent of the obligee in the absence of relevant laws and regulations in China, that is to say, the behavior of the actor selling and providing the personal information that the obligee has already disclosed should not be considered as "violating the relevant provisions of the state". Thirdly, under the background of imperfect personal information protection mechanism and high incidence of crimes against citizens' personal information in China, we should focus on cases in which the infringer fails to disclose personal information in practice.
For the personal information passively disclosed by the obligee, the behavior of the actor to obtain the relevant information can be regarded as legal. However, if the subsequent sale or provision violates the will of the obligee, infringes on his personal privacy and peace of life, or poses a threat to the personal safety and property safety of the obligee, it shall be punished as the crime of infringing citizens' personal information according to the actual situation.
For the personal information passively disclosed by the obligee, it is generally legal for the actor to obtain the relevant information. However, if the act of selling or providing information after obtaining it infringes on the personal safety, property safety or peace of private life of the information subject, and the information subject has a strong will to protect its relevant personal information, it should be regarded as the crime of infringing citizens' personal information according to its circumstances.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion
In the era of big data, personal information is of great value to individuals, organizations, society and even the country, which also breeds more and more crimes against personal information. As the object of the crime of infringing citizens' personal information, the definition, characteristic analysis, distinction from related concepts and judicial determination of "citizens' personal information" are of great significance for cracking down on related crimes and protecting citizens' personal information. Through the research of this paper, the following conclusions are drawn: First, the definition principle of citizens' personal information. First, we should follow the principle of modesty of criminal law to ensure that the scope of attack should not be too wide, which will lead to the waste of national penalty resources and the reduction of operability, nor too narrow, which will lead to the failure to properly protect citizens' personal information rights and interests. Second, we should follow the principle of balance between rights protection and information circulation, and protect citizens' personal and property rights from infringement without hindering the normal circulation of information. Third, we should follow the principle of coordination between personal interests and public interests, allow personal interests to make appropriate concessions to public interests, but put an end to violations and excessive restrictions on personal interests. Second, "citizens" in citizens' personal information should include foreigners and stateless persons, and should not include the dead and legal persons. "Personal information" in citizens' personal information should be defined by "identification theory", and a specific natural person can be identified as the fundamental attribute of citizens' personal information in criminal law. In the sense of criminal law, citizens' personal information should not only be identifiable, but also have the characteristics of objective authenticity and value, which can be used as an auxiliary judgment standard. We should also pay attention to distinguish personal information from personal privacy, personal data and other related concepts to avoid confusion in judicial practice. Third, the identification of general personal information. "Identifiability" is the difficulty of its judgment, which can be comprehensively analyzed and judged from three aspects: the subjective purpose of the actor, the importance of information to the personal and property safety of his subject, and the degree of integration of information with other information; Sensitive personal information, such as track information and property information, should be strictly controlled and considered in combination with the subjective psychological attitude of the actor because of its low conviction threshold and heavy punishment. Personal information that has been made public by the information subject shall be discussed in different situations. For the personal information voluntarily disclosed by the information subject, the behavior of the actor in obtaining, selling and providing it should not be regarded as the crime of infringing citizens' personal information. For the passive disclosure of personal information by the information subject, it is legal for the actor to obtain the information, but the subsequent sale and provision can be punished as the crime of infringing citizens' personal information according to the actual situation.
I hope the discussion in this paper can contribute to the improvement of China's personal information protection system.