Personal privacy online "naked running" private life tranquility is disturbed should be "more true"

People's complaints about excessive collection of personal information have long been everywhere, but due to cost problems, successful rights protection cases are rare; how to give users enough security on future online platforms, where are the boundaries of violations?

The tranquility of private life is disturbed, should it be "more real"

When downloading or using an app, you are asked if you can authorize access to your private space; you receive a strange text message but know your name exactly; you often receive some strange phone calls to sell you various products or services... People's excessive collection of personal information, resulting in the tranquility of private life being intruded for no reason, has long been everywhere. However, in the face of such intrusion, how many people are willing to spend time and energy to "be more authentic"? What does the law regulate privacy and personal information protection? In the future development of the network platform, where is the boundary of collecting personal information?

"Why does a reading APP ask for telephone permission" "The loan has been paid off, the online lending platform wants to cancel the account, but it is required to hold the front and back photos of the ID card" "The privacy protection clause is so long, it is too difficult to read, but it cannot be installed without authorization"... In the era of mobile Internet, people's food, clothing, housing and travel are increasingly inseparable from various mobile apps and websites. However, personal information is collected excessively and indiscriminately, leaving room for some businesses to illegally use personal information for personal gain, which not only disturbs the normal life of individuals, but also lays hidden dangers for personal privacy to be leaked.

People frequently complain about the excessive collection of personal information by various websites and apps, but due to the cost of rights protection, individuals choose to sue and defend their rights, and there are even fewer successful cases. The future development of the network platform, how to give users a sufficient sense of security? Where are the boundaries of collecting personal information? Can ordinary people enjoy the convenience of technology and enjoy safety at the same time?

The respect that "more real" has earned

"[XX Workplace] Wang Yu, a former colleague labeled you as 'there are two brushes' and recommended 119 professional contacts to you, Liu, Dai, Wang and other 36 friends are also waiting for you in XX, click the link to get the verification code, valid for 24 hours" - On March 10, 2018, after receiving such a text message, Wang Yu (pseudonym) clicked on the link provided by the text message, and the web page automatically jumped to the website hosted and operated by a Beijing Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd.

Wang Yu was "shocked" after receiving the message, never registered and used the site's service, but was directly called by name in the text message sent by the site, and had former colleagues mark themselves, and many friends waited for them to join. Wang Yu, a "more truthful child", sued the company to the court, arguing that the website illegally obtained, stored, used and identified its personal privacy information, interfering with the tranquility of his private life. Wang Yu asked the website to stop infringing on its privacy rights, permanently delete its personal information, and publish an apology statement. A few days ago, the Haidian District Court of Beijing Municipality ruled in favor of Wang Yu's litigation claim.

In the court trial, the side of the technology company to which the website belongs held that the plaintiff's mobile phone number was contained in the address book uploaded by his friend when using the website service, the website did not have the subjective intention of infringement, and the acts involved in the case did not cause damage to Wang Yu.

Wang Yu said that he learned from friends that they did use the website's services, but did not take the initiative to send text messages to the plaintiffs; at the same time, the expression "there are former colleagues labeling you" in the text messages involved in the case is more like the tone of the positive statements of the website, rather than the dialogue between friends, which should be sent by the website.

In court, the judge asked the technology company's litigation agent whether there was evidence such as background data records during the period from 2017 to 2018, and the relevant person in charge said that the time had passed for a long time and no information had been retained. At that time, the operation of the website should be to invite new users to comment on friends, and when the user selected, he would touch the SMS sending, believing that the SMS received by the plaintiff should have been triggered after the comment of his friend at that time.

However, the company said that most applications have the behavior of obtaining mobile phone numbers, including obtaining the content of user contacts and collecting user information, insisting that although its website has induced users to send text messages, it is not illegal.

The Civil Code makes it clear that privacy cannot be violated

"Most of the privacy cases against personal information are the acquisition or disclosure of personal information without the consent of the person. The particularity of this case is that the defendant did not obtain information from the plaintiff himself, but through a certain amount of information collected from others, through big data calculation and judgment, comprehensively assessed the range of the plaintiff's contacts, and compiled information containing the names of the plaintiff and his friends and sent it to the plaintiff himself to attract his registration. The person sending the message doesn't know that their upload or review triggers a text message. Wang Hongcheng, a judge at the Haidian Court in Beijing, said.

Wang Hongcheng said that because the content of the text message contains the names of Wang Yu and his friends, the influence on Wang Yu is far greater than the recommendation information that can be directly ignored. The copywriting of the website deliberately caused the illusion that friends directly invited to register, and compared with the recommendation message of sending ordinary text messages with unrelated content, Wang Yu was greatly disturbed and troubled, and his rights and interests were infringed, and the website should bear the tort liability for this.

In the end, the court ruled in favor of all of Wang Yu's claims.

It is understood that the judgment time of the case is after the promulgation of the Civil Code and before its implementation. Wang Hongcheng said that the Civil Code applicable to this case specifically establishes Chapter VI "Privacy and Personal Information Protection" in Title IV "Personality Rights", which makes it clear that privacy is the private life tranquility of natural persons and the private space, private activities, and private information that they do not want others to know, and unless otherwise provided by law or with the explicit consent of the right holder, no organization or individual may engage in acts such as harassing the private life tranquility of others and handling other people's private information by means of telephones, text messages, instant messaging tools, e-mails, leaflets, etc.

Wang Hongcheng told reporters that the judgment of this case refers to the above provisions of the thinking of the judgment reasoning, from the trial process of the case can be seen, the website's business model has also undergone some positive adjustments, which is worthy of recognition. He hoped that when network companies collect and use users' personal information in large quantities, they will pay more attention to the scope and boundaries to avoid infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of citizens.

Under strict control, personal privacy is expected to no longer be "naked"

So, where is the boundary of the online platform collecting personal information?

As early as November 2018, the China Consumers Association released the "Evaluation Report on the Collection and Privacy Policy of Personal Information of 100 Apps", which showed that as many as 91 apps listed permissions were suspected of "crossing the line", that is, there was a problem of excessive collection of users' personal information. Among them, three kinds of personal information, such as "location information", "address book information" and "mobile phone number", are the most common content of excessive collection or use.

Normally, online platforms collect excessive personal information, mainly for user analysis, and then optimize and upgrade their own products, accurately match commercial advertisements, etc. However, combing through the relevant reports, it can be seen that in the past two years, in addition to the theft of personal information due to the lack of platform technology, there is no shortage of insiders who have profited by selling customer personal information.

At the end of 2020, the State Internet Information Office issued the "Scope of Necessary Personal Information for Common Types of Mobile Internet Applications (Apps)" (Draft for Comments), proposing that 12 types of apps such as online live broadcasting, online video and audio, short videos, and news information can use basic functional services without personal information, and stipulate the scope of necessary personal information for 38 common types of Apps such as map navigation, online ride-hailing, and instant messaging.

With the introduction of relevant regulations, apps suspected of collecting personal information in violation of regulations have been processed in batches. On February 5, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology notified 26 apps that infringed on the rights and interests of users that could not be rectified in time. In the past two months, the department has conducted technical tests on 210,000 apps in mainstream domestic app stores, put forward rectification requirements for 1,067 illegal APPS, publicly exposed 220 models that were not rectified in place, and removed 86 APPS that refused to be rectified.

Liu Liehong, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that in response to hot issues, we will focus on technical research on issues such as illegal voice retrieval authority in stages and batches to further improve the effectiveness of thematic governance. Enterprises and APPS that do not rectify or rectify problems without rectification or are not thorough, problems occur repeatedly, and engage in technical confrontation to evade inspection should be dealt with by taking more severe measures such as direct removal from shelves, stopping access, administrative penalties, risk tips, and credit management.