On The Legal Protection For Privacy In The Information Times

Now, we're living in an information economic society which is based on globalization and network. This information society has been changing our ways of producing and living, and it makes man's life more and more fast and convenient, but it also brings a threat against personal privacy. The open network, the common resources and the convenience of getting information have broken the traditional limit of personal privacy and make the act of tort assume some new characteristics: varied acts of tort, different infringers, technical acts, serious consequences, etc.. Especially, more privacy torts have kept emerging in recent years. All those pose a new and urgent task to theory researches, legislation and judicature. The personal privacy protection is the need of not only every individual, but also the development of the economic society.This article firstly introduces the concept and the characteristics of the traditional privacy and then analyses its new changes in the information times and places the emphasis on gathering and using personal information improperly, makes a thorough study on privacy tort. Because there are no mature legal provisions and judicial experiences, we cant simply judge an act of privacy tort as legal or illegal, instead of that, we judge the act as proper or improper in this article. In China, we don't have a privacy protection tradition, but the development of the society makes it obvious that we shouldn't ignore the power of law anymore. Now, many countries in the world attach more and more importance to the protection for personal privacy. There are two main patterns adopted in the world: one is self-control adopted by U.S.A., the other one is law-control adopted by E.U.. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. This article compares those two patterns and puts forward a solution of this problem for China in the information times: 1. to clarify the legal status of privacy in the basic laws; 2. to lay down special laws for information privacy protection; 3. to formulate a self-discipline policy in the professional circles; 4. to strengthen international coordination on all information platforms to protect privacy. In the information times, privacy protection is a legal problem, a social issue, and a technical problem. In order to solve this problem, all parts of the society should work hard together for a rather long time. This article tries to call people's attention to the problem of privacy protection through analysing its changes in the information times.