Research On The Application Of "Purpose Limitation Principle" In Personal Information Protection

As the basic principle of personal information protection,the purpose limitation principle is usually composed of two elements: “Purpose Specification” and “Restriction of Use”.It requires that personal information processing activities should take the initial purpose of information collection as the behavior boundary,so as to ensure the information subjects’ independent control over their personal information.The application of the purpose limitation principle depends on the personal information protection practice,and different countries have different attitudes towards the empowerment of information subjects.The European Union tends to advocate the information subject’s control and domination of personal information with the mode of protection of basic rights,while the United States prefer to insist the market circulation and industrial autonomy of information with the mode of protection of privacy.China empowers the personal information subject with the rights and interests of personal information and adopts the single behaviorism regulation mode to achieve the legislative purposes of keeping balance between information protection and information circulation.In the era of big data,the intrinsic value of personal information tends to be diversified.Therefore,the purpose limitation principle has been challenged,which is mainly manifested as the formalization of reasonable clauses with explicit purpose,overly strict criteria for the use of restrictions,and vague connotation of clauses with minimal impact on the rights and interests of personal information.In this way,the causes of the aforementioned difficulties should be further explored from the essence of the dilemma,theoretical traceability and practical framework.After clarifying the causes of the dilemma,it is found that both the EU and the US are committed to achieving the balance between information protection and information circulation by referring to the reform plan of the extraterritorial purpose restriction principle.The EU promotes the utilization of data by broadening the scope of fair use of “initial purpose” and establishing the evaluation mechanism of “compatible use”.In terms of US,the American academia has introduced “scene consistency theory” and the government has been trying to construct a scenario-based protection mode focusing on “risk prevention”.Based on the dual legislative purpose of personal information protection law and the diversified value of personal information,China should adhere to the empowerment mode of “personal information rights and interests” and form a scenario-based behavioral regulation protection mode with Chinese characteristics.Firstly,in terms of the connotation of the purpose restriction principle,the regulation function of the purpose restriction principle should be brought into the perspective of the type protection of sensitive personal information and general personal information.Secondly,as for the theoretical basis of the purpose limitation principle,the interpretation path of “individual control” should be gradually transformed into “risk regulation”.Finally,in terms of personal information protection practice,a scenario-oriented application scheme should be formed that “nonpurpose use of sensitive personal information is prohibited,while non-purpose use of general personal information is moderately allowed”,and the risk regulation mechanism of personal information processing should be gradually improved.