| In today’s era of big data,In the era of big data,citizens’ personal information is often at risk of being leaked.In the face of the increasing criminal activities of personal information and its downstream crimes,the Amendment(IX)to the Criminal Law introduced the crime of infringing citizens’ personal information for the first time and issued a corresponding judicial interpretation to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of all citizens are effectively protected.In criminal judicial practice,after a long period of exploration,there is still a controversy in academic circles as to what is the legal interest to be protected by this crime,especially the dispute between personal legal interest and super personal legal interest as the focus of the problem,which also brings great challenges to the judicial authorities in practice.Violation of personal information is not only an invasion of privacy,but may also be a precursor to criminal activities such as intentional injury and fraud,which threaten the safety of property and lives of members of society as a whole.In order to effectively deter acts of infringement of citizens’ personal information,we must clarify the focus of the legal interests protected by this crime,determine the scope of protection of this crime,and explain its constituent elements.In general,academics generally agree that the right to self-determination of personal information is the key to protecting citizens’ personal information,that everyone’s information is equally important,and that everyone has the right to freely handle and use the content of such information.However,as the scope of personal information continues to expand,information owners do not have full control over their personal information,resulting in the legal interests supported by this offence not being fully understood and applied.As individuals do not have a realistic basis for controlling their personal information,nor do they have the ability to grant others the right to use their information reasonably,granting individuals an overpowering type of control could lead to serious consequences that could affect the economic development and social management of the country.Therefore,the right to self-determination of personal information,which is currently supported by the mainstream academic view,does not constitute a legal interest for the protection of this crime.The supra-personal legal interest theory also has certain limitations,as it does not take into account the criminal legislative basis of this crime and the special nature of personal information,which may lead to a decrease in the punishment for violations and even limit the scope of protection of this crime.Therefore,this paper suggests that the legal interest protected by the crime of infringement of citizens’ personal information should be studied from a private law perspective to a public law perspective,and that the legal interest protected by this crime should be a public law interest-the right to protection of personal information-but it is not a purely personal legal interest,and also has super-personal attributes.The purpose of this article is to take the definition and classification of legal interests as the theoretical premise,select a suitable research perspective,clarify the connotation of the legal interests of this crime,define the reasonable scope of protection of this crime,and solve the complex problems in criminal law practice.The main contents of this paper are as follows:The introductory part begins with an elaboration of the background and purpose of the study of the crime of infringement of citizens’ personal information.The purpose of this article is to clarify the legal interests of protection of this crime,to use the law as the standard for delineating the circle of personal information security,and to delineate a reasonable scope of protection for this crime.Currently,there are many doctrines that the crime of infringement of citizens’ personal information should be based on the premise that personal information is respected and safeguarded,i.e.as a basis for taking effective measures to prevent and reduce the possible infringement.Therefore,we can conclude that maintaining personal information to be respected and safeguarded will be effective in preventing and reducing possible infringements.The right to personal information is more complex than private rights similar to property rights,as it relates to both the privacy of the individual and the overall interests of society.Therefore,when the right to personal information is seen as a dominant private right,in practice this dominance is no longer over one’s own information,but over the behaviour of others.In addition,the research methodology of this paper is introduced,and finally,the problems that this paper intends to address are outlined in order to improve the connotation of the protection of legal interests in the crime of infringing citizens’ personal information and to solve the relevant problems in judicial practice.The first part is to explore the legislative background and connotation of the legal interests of this crime.The provisions of the Amendment(IX)to the Criminal Law and the corresponding judicial interpretations on this crime,the part of the Civil Code that deals with the protection of personal information are the main reference bases for the legislative background of this crime,and there are also provisions in the Law on the Protection of Personal Information,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,the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court,the Supreme People’s Procuratorate,the Ministry of Public Security on Punishing Criminal Activities against Citizens’ Personal Information in accordance with Law","Provisions on the Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunications and Internet Users","Guidelines on the Protection of Personal Information Security on the Internet" and other laws and regulations,we can conduct a more in-depth study of the legislative background of this crime in order to better protect citizens’ personal information,maintain the security and stability of society and determine the scope of protection of the legal benefits of this crime.Finally,the relationship between the legislative purpose of this crime and the protection of legal interests is sorted out,as well as the importance of the study of the legal interests of this crime to judicial practice.The second part is to explore the theoretical gathering of the legal interests protected by this crime.The criminal justice field in China has extensively discussed the legal interests of this crime,among which both the personal legal interest theory and the super-personal legal interest theory have occupied an important position.This paper argues that the legal interest of the crime of infringement of citizens’ personal information advocated by the public law legal interest view is the right to protection of personal information in the public law sense,rather than the right to self-determination of personal information in the private law sense.The purpose of this article is to revise and argue for the public law view of legal interests through the interpretation of legal interests research.The third part is a comparative study of the legal interest in the protection of this crime,which mainly includes a comparative examination of the legal interest theories in the United States and Germany:the right to privacy in the United States,the right to information self-determination in Germany,etc.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the legal interests of Germany and the United States on the crime of infringing citizens’ personal information through the comparative study of foreign legal interest theories,and to evaluate the superiority and shortcomings of the legal interest theories of each country,so as to find a reasonable path suitable for China’s criminal judicial practice.The fourth part is to improve the judicial recognition and application of this crime.The purpose of this paper is to further explore the application of the theory of protection of legal interests of this crime at the micro level,and to address the difficulties in judicial practice of this crime,taking the elements of circumstances and the determination of the quantity of personal information as the perspective,specifically including the determination of aggravating circumstances" and the analysis of the criteria for calculating the quantity of personal information,to further explore the judicial determination and application of this crime.The paper concludes with a summary of the main points.The concluding section summarizes the main ideas of this article,hoping that clarifying the connotation of the protection of legal interests of this crime will help the specific application of this crime in judicial practice. |
