Analysis And Construction Of The ’Legitimate Interests’ Rule Under Personal Information Protection

The legal basis of personal information processing is the logical starting point for the construction of a personal information protection system,and it is also the primary prerequisite for personal information processors to legally carry out personal information processing activities.Compared with the EU’s ’General Data Protection Regulation’,the ’Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China（Draft）’ published does not establish the ’legitimate interests’ rule in the basic rule system for the legality of personal information processing.In the era of big data,the ’legitimate interests’ rule is of great significance for balance of the protection and free flow of personal information.In the legality basic rule system of personal information processing,the ’legitimate interests’ rule plays an important role in avoiding excessive reliance on other legality foundations and making up for the lack of other legality foundations.In addition,the ’legitimate interests’ rule also gives the justice sufficient discretionary space to achieve the legislative purpose of balancing the use and protection of personal information in different scenarios.Therefore,whether the ’legitimate interests’ rule should be introduced in our country’s personal information protection legislation and how to construct the rule is worthy of further study and discussion.The ’legitimate interests’ rule mainly originated in Europe,has decades of development history in European legislation,and is inherited and retained by the current General Data Protection Regulation.In the legality basic rule system of personal information processing,the legitimate interests’ rule is one of the legality foundations of interest weighing,and it has comprehensive and instructive system function.According to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and related documents,the composition of the ’legitimate interests’ rule is required to satisfy the three conditions,i.e.’legitimate interests’,the necessity of information processing,and the priority of "legitimate interests".The expression of the ’legitimate interests’ rule has the characteristics of abstractness and principle.Studying and discussing the practical application of the legitimate interests’ rule in different typical scenarios is conducive to deepen the understanding of the rule and unifying the interpretation and application of the rule.Commercial arbitration and commercial activity are two different typical scenarios in which the‘legitimate interests’ rule may be applied effectively.Commercial arbitration scenarios focus on personal information in the field of dispute settlement,emphasizing the role of the legitimate interests’ rule in mitigating the conflict between commercial arbitration and personal information protection.The scene of commercial activities focuses on the coordination between the efficiency of commercial activities and the protection of personal information by the ’legitimate interests’ rule,focusing on the field of economic operation.The necessity of introducing ’1egitimate interests’ rule into the Chinese legal system is mainly reflected in three aspects:the objective need for realizing the diversified value of personal information,the path requirements of scenarios and risk management concepts,and making up for other deficiencies in the basis of legality.Under modern information technology,the value of personal dignity and freedom,property value and public management value contained in personal information are fully revealed.The diversity of the value of personal information requires legislation to establish legitimate interests’ rule that based on value balance and treat the simultaneous realization of multiple values as the aim.In addition,the legitimate interests’ rule fully embodies the core viewpoint of scenarios and risk management concepts,and fully plays and reflects the various advantages of the concept.Finally,the ’legitimate interests’ rule can avoid the lack and mismatch of the legality basis of other balances of interests,and make up for the lack of the ’consent’ rule.Based on the above theoretical and practical discussion and analysis,China’s personal information protection legislation should introduce the legitimate interests’rule.In the process of transplanting the legitimate interests’ rule and laws,China’s legislation should fully consider the differences in social background and adopt relatively loose test standards for the balance of interests.Compared with the EU’s greater emphasis on the protection of personal information,China should consider shifting its balance to personal information processors,especially in the process.of conducting necessity test and balance of interests test of ’legitimate interests’,to ensure the rational use of personal information and promote the development of information technology.