Internet police popularize the law
"Crimes and Penalties" for Infringing on Citizens' Personal Information
Is it easy to communicate online?
Is it quick to order food online?
Is online entertainment addictive?
BUT
Personal information may be disclosed
Have you considered it?
In order to increase the criminal law protection of citizens' personal information, the ninth amendment to the Criminal Law adds crimes such as the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information. The Cybersecurity Law and the Personal Information Protection Law have been promulgated one after another, further improving the legal system for the protection of personal information.
Let's take a look at what kind of penalties will be imposed for infringing on citizens' personal information!
1. Yin's case of infringing on citizens' personal information
From April 2020 to May 2020, Yin sold a total of 10,166 pieces of personal information of shareholders to Chen (handled in a separate case) in a separate manner, making a profit of 9,000 yuan. When the public security police arrested Yin, they seized a U disk from his residence.
After identification, the U disk stores the personal information of citizens including telephone numbers, and the number of statistics after weight removal has 2488297. The information coincided with the 10,166 pieces of citizens' personal information sold by Yin to Chen, and the existing evidence proved that Yin held the USB stick and managed and used the information stored on the U disk, and the source of the information stored on the U disk was not legal, and its amount far exceeded the standard of particularly serious circumstances determined by the judicial interpretation. In addition, in 2016, Yin was sentenced for trafficking in citizens' personal information.
Yin was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison and fined RMB 40,000. The rmb 9,000 yuan of illegal gains returned to the investigating organs shall be confiscated in accordance with law.
Q: How should the number of citizens' personal information illegally obtained and sold be calculated?
According to Article 11 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement of Citizens' Personal Information on June 1, 2017, if a citizen's personal information is illegally acquired and then sold or provided, the number of citizens' personal information shall not be counted repeatedly. Where the same citizen's personal information is separately sold or provided to different units or individuals, the number of citizens' personal information is cumulatively calculated. Therefore, the number of personal information that Yin illegally obtained and then sold was not double-counted.
Q: Why was Li Li given a heavier punishment for providing citizens' personal property information by taking advantage of his position?
Although Li provided personal information without seeking benefits, in the course of performing his duties, he provided 50 pieces of personal property information and 1 piece of communication information of other citizens, which met the "serious circumstances" and should be given a heavier punishment. Many cases of the sale and purchase of citizens' personal information can also see the "shadow" of the participation of "internal ghosts", which is an important reason for the proliferation of illegal crimes that infringe on citizens' personal information.
Therefore, item 8 of the first paragraph of article 5 of the Interpretations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Procuratorate set special standards for determining that the sale or provision of citizens' personal information obtained in the course of performing their duties or providing services to others is "serious circumstances", and stipulates that the number and amount of citizens' personal information sold or provided under such circumstances shall be halved. Moreover, the second paragraph of article 253-1 of the Criminal Law stipulates that "whoever, in violation of the relevant provisions of the State, sells or provides to others citizens' personal information obtained in the course of performing their duties or providing services, shall be given a heavier punishment in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph."
2. Li Mou infringed upon citizens' personal information
Li is an employee of a municipal real estate registration center, and taking advantage of his position to inquire about real estate registration information, he accepted requests from others from January 2017 to July 2019 and illegally provided citizens' personal property information to Kong and others. According to statistics, it provides 51 pieces of citizens' personal information to others, and the 51 articles of citizens' personal information include 50 pieces of citizens' property information and 1 piece of communication information.
In violation of the relevant provisions of the state, Li took advantage of his work in the review post of the real estate registration management department to provide citizens' personal information to others, constituting the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information, and was sentenced to 8 months imprisonment, suspended for 1 year, and fined 2,000 yuan.
3. A case of a company infringing on citizens' personal information
A network company developed a "planted app" to provide users with agricultural technology information. Through inspection, the network security department found that the APP obtained 9 permissions such as accurate positioning of the mobile phone, writing to external memory, shooting, and reading the address book without explicitly indicating to the user, and collected relevant user information. By retrieving the interaction data between the APP client and the server, it was found that the APP had collected 130,000 people's ID card numbers, mobile phone numbers, locations, IMEI numbers and other personal information without explicitly indicating to the user.
In response to the network company's illegal act of collecting citizens' personal information beyond the scope, the network security department imposed an administrative penalty of a fine of 10,000 yuan in accordance with articles 41 and 64 of the Cybersecurity Law.
Q: What are the penalties for collecting citizens' personal information beyond the scope?
For example, the Cybersecurity Law stipulates that network operators must not collect personal information unrelated to the services they provide, and when collecting personal information, they must clearly indicate the purpose, method, and scope of use, and obtain the consent of the person being collected.
If these provisions are violated, administrative penalties such as warnings, confiscation of illegal gains, fines, etc., and if the circumstances are serious, they will be punished with penalties such as suspension of relevant business, suspension of business for rectification, closure of websites, revocation of licenses or business licenses.
Citizens' personal information is protected by law. Any illegal or criminal act that infringes on citizens' personal information will be punished by law.
Relevant units should strengthen internal personnel management to prevent the leakage of citizen information from within, and at the same time, strengthen the security and maintenance of computer systems to prevent information leakage caused by hacking intrusion!
Citizens should pay attention to the protection of personal information, and friends who like to "post" life should not disclose personal details on social media, so as to avoid information being obtained and used by criminals.
Further reading:
Public security organs: Escort the security of personal information in accordance with law
Source: Cyber Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security
Editor-in-Charge: Lemon Shan