The Study Of Privacy Protection In Archival Opening And Utilization

Archival opening and utilization have been increasingly becoming the main trend of archives work; they are not only the important target to measure the standard of archives service but also the major approach to realize archival value. With the upsurge of "social memory" and people’s records, more and more archives reflecting personal activities, identities, financial conditions and the like emerge proportionally. Consequently it’s vital to protect personal sensitive information in the process of archival opening and utilization.Currently, the Archives and the users are intentionally or negligently causing privacy violations in the process of archival opening and utilization. This may make adverse consequence to Archives, users and another bodies related to privacy. "Chen Yinke’s last two decades" case and "untouched archive" case have made great influence in our field, which lead the related stakeholders to justify themselves in court. Because the laws and regulations are imperfect, the Archives, users and other bodies are usually haunted by them. As the birthplace of the concept of privacy, foreign countries in this field pay much more attention to the privacy protection and have made some sound laws and regulations in the process of archival opening and utilization, which can be used by our country for reference. Information self-determination theory is different from the traditional ones which lay emphasis on the characteristic and personal value of privacy; but Information self-determination theory regards body’s selection and control of personal information, and notices the social value and social attributes of privacy in modern society. Also, the realization of this theory needs to be secured by social institutions.Taking a panoramic view of above, I think that "a premise, two relationships, three subjects and four guarantees" are the directions of designing the regulations and policies of the privacy protection. Namely, we can incorporate the problem of privacy protection into laws and policies; handle the relationship between the right to know and the right to information privacy, as well as that of personal interest and public interest; consider the different admiration of archives keeper, archives user and archives privacy subject; provide for the implementation of laws and policies from the aspects of idea, system, institution and personnel.