The Study On Criminal Law Protection Of Personal Information Of Citizens

With arrival of the age of big data, criminal means for crimes concerning personal information of citizens are emerging continuously, which are leading to increasingly serious results and increasingly tough situation of protection for personal information of citizens. Newly issued in 2015, Article 17 of Amendments to Criminal Law(IX) includes certain correction of problems existing in the original legal provisions on crimes concerning infringement of personal information of citizens. With Article 17 of Amendments to Criminal Law(IX) as model for analysis, systematic construction of crimes concerning infringement of personal information of Chinese citizens is discussed and explored in this paper.This paper comprises of three sections, including introduction, main text and conclusion.Introduction describes reasons and purpose of creating this paper.Main text of this paper is divided into four parts.Part I includes definition and summary of personal information of citizens. Different theories about definition of personal information of citizens and distinction of personal information and relevant concepts are introduced, in addition to which characteristics of personal information are compared and definition on personal information of Chinese citizens is provided. With consideration of relevant legislative stipulations in various countries, privacy-type defining mode and identification-type defining mode are mainly introduced. Through comparison of construction basis between privacy-type defining mode and identification-type defining mode, relationship between personal information and personal data are clarified for further definition of personal information.Part II describes legal protection of personal information of citizens. Based on general survey on legal protection of personal information of citizens, personal protection of citizens in the US, UK, Germany and Japan are mainly introduced. Through legislative provisions in the above four countries, three theories about legal attributes of personal information including protection of privacy right, protection of personality right and protection of property right are summarized. Based on the above analysis and discussion, personal information of citizens should be deemed as a personality right with interest of property.Part III describes protection of personal information of citizens as stipulated in China’s Criminal Law. Amendments to Criminal Law(VII) includes relevant articles concerning protection of personal information for the first time, which is then improved and supplemented in Amendments to Criminal Law(IX) to a certain degree, and some insufficiencies and shortcomings are thus remedied. Moreover, Article 3 with significance of the time is added, which provides an inclusive and general article on crimes concerning personal information of citizens and enables Criminal Law to play a bigger role in protecting personal information of citizens. Amendments to Criminal Law(VII) include two shortcomings as for stipulations on protection of personal information of citizens: Subject of crimes concerning personal information of citizens needs to be improved and scope of targets of such crimes should be extended. From four aspects of constitution of crime, provisions on protection of personal information of citizens in Amendments to Criminal Law(IX) are analyzed. Individual crime, job-related crime, crime concerning infringement of freedom of communication and larceny are differentiated.Part IV describes development and introspection of the criminal protection of personal information of citizens. Introspection on Amendments to Criminal Law(IX) is conducted, for which there are problems in three aspects: Objective aspect of such crimes is to be improved and completed; there exist defects in setting of statutory penalty and there is overlap of articles. On this basis, a system for crimes concerning personal information of Chinese citizens should be constructed in a reasonable way: Improve relevant legislations, and clarify relevant standards continuously in judicial practice.Based on the serious situation of crimes concerning personal information of citizens and some problems existing in Amendments to Criminal Law(IX), relevant legislations should be further improved and standards for circumstances of crimes should be clarified, and a system of penalty for crimes concerning personal information of citizens with ordered severity should be constructed.