"Free door-to-door photo of the baby" and "free trial of early education class"...... Many parents of newborns have received various sales calls about newborns, and the other party can not only "sell on demand" at all stages of the child's growth, but also accurately tell the information about the child and the parents. Behind this, an industrial chain has been formed to illegally buy, sell and use the personal information of newborns.
Recently, the Hangzhou Internet Court heard a civil public interest lawsuit on personal information protection, which involved more than 30,000 pieces of personal information of newborns.
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In May 2021, Ms. Ye, who lives in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, just a few days after giving birth, received a sales call from a photography company, claiming that she could take pictures of her newborn for free and provide door-to-door services.
Ms. Ye: He knew that I must have just given birth, and he called me just at the stage when I needed it, saying that he could come to my door for free to take pictures, and there were 3 photos of different scenes.
After the photo was taken, the staff introduced to Ms. Ye that the 3 free photos promised before did not include negatives and retouching, and if you want, you need to charge an additional fee. Considering that the other party had already taken photos at home, and she did have this need, Ms. Ye still chose the photo package provided by this photography company, with a total value of more than 5,000 yuan.
Although she had doubts about how the photography company could obtain her and her children's personal information, Ms. Ye felt that this kind of thing often happened in her daily life, so she did not pursue and defend her rights further.
In May 2022, the Hangzhou police received clues about the case transferred by the Jiangsu police, and a photography agency in Xiaoshan District was suspected of purchasing and using the personal information of newborns. The Xiaoshan police filed a case for investigation, and soon arrested Li who illegally sold newborn information, as well as the heads of two photography agencies that purchased newborn information, including the photography company that provided photo services for Ms. Ye's child, and then the case was transferred to the People's Procuratorate of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City for review and prosecution.
During the investigation, the procuratorate found that from the second half of 2020 to February 2022, Li successively purchased more than 30,000 pieces of personal information of newborns in many places through illegal channels, involving areas including Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui and other places.
According to the investigation of the procuratorate, Li was originally engaged in the children's photography industry in Beijing for a long time. In 2020, he obtained a batch of newborn personal information in the same industry's social groups, and in order to monetize these personal information, he began to look for buyers to sell.
After finding the intended buyer in Hangzhou, Li personally came from Beijing to meet the buyer offline, and in order to dispel the buyer's concerns, Li will also provide some personal information of the local newborn to verify the authenticity, including date of birth, gender, parents' names and contact information.
In order to expand the source of customers, a photography company and a creative company in Hangzhou successively purchased and used the above-mentioned personal information from Li's hands, from which Li illegally profited more than 290,000 yuan.
In the end, Li was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison and fined 300,000 yuan for "infringing on citizens' personal information", and is currently serving his sentence. Two photography agencies were also held accountable.
After that, the People's Procuratorate of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, filed a public interest lawsuit, suing Li and the two businesses for civil tort liability.
The court held that the personal information of the newborn involved in this case included the date of birth, gender, name and contact information of the parents, etc., which was sufficient to identify the specific newborn and its parents, and belonged to the personal information of citizens protected by the Civil Code. The three defendants, for the purpose of making profits, illegally bought and sold and used the relevant personal information of specific groups of people without the consent of the individuals, which not only harmed the rights and interests of the relevant subjects in the personal information of citizens, disrupted the peace and tranquility of the lives of newborns and their parents, but also infringed on the social and public interests in the field of public information security, so the three defendants should bear corresponding civil liability.
On April 16, the Hangzhou Internet Court ordered Li and the other three defendants to publicly apologize in the national media and pay more than 290,000 yuan in public interest damages for public interest matters such as the protection of personal information or the protection of the rights and interests of women and children.
In cases of infringement of personal information, it is difficult for victims to protect their rights due to limitations such as professionalism and ability to present evidence. By including personal information protection in the scope of procuratorial public interest litigation, the law not only promotes the better resolution of practical problems, but also helps to improve the level of public security governance.
It is understood that the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, which came into effect on November 1, 2021, clearly includes personal information protection in the statutory field of public interest litigation, and makes clear provisions on the filing of public interest litigation on personal information protection by procuratorates and other organizations.
Through public interest litigation, the Hangzhou Xiaoshan Procuratorate demanded that the three defendants who infringed on citizens' personal information apologize to the public, and repair the damaged social and public interests in the field of personal information and the protection of women and children in the form of public interest damages, providing judicial support for the formation of a personal information protection ecology in which the government, enterprises, relevant social organizations, and the public participate together.
Zhao Xi, Judge of the First Division of the Internet Trial of the Hangzhou Internet Court: In fact, we also hope to be guided by the judgment and raise the legal awareness of the people from the source, and not to obtain, buy, sell, operate or process citizens' personal information by any illegal means. All government organs, groups, and online platforms should also erect their own "fence walls" to prevent citizens' personal information from flowing into the market and being resold.