The Legal Aspects Of Data Trust

Given the recent rapid development of the domestic digital economy,data assets have gradually become an important asset type in society,and the market for data elements is growing as more and more transactions are conducted by various institutions and individuals through data assets.The development of the data market involves the clarification of data ownership and use rights,data security issues such as protecting sensitive information and privacy,and the complex issue of benefit distribution.To address the above issues,the idea of "data trust" was first proposed abroad,based on the design of separating ownership and control of trust instruments,and changing the unequal relationship between data controllers and data owners by utilizing a neutral third-party institution to ensure privacy and information security in data storage and utilization.When compared to traditional trusts,the trust property of data trust is data usufruct rights,such as the right to process and utilize data and the right to operate data goods.The scope of data trustees is not restricted to trust companies,and other data processors,such as huge Internet platforms,are better suited to serve as trustees.Data trustees may also be responsible for the data processing behavior of third parties and assume gatekeeper responsibility for the security of data,and thus have to assume the fiduciary obligation to ensure the compliance of third-party data processing behavior.By applying the trust system to data governance,data trusts can break through the "difficulty of mutual trust",which is the primary hurdle to promoting the reform of the whole process of market allocation of data elements and enable individuals and groups to exert influence on how data about them are used and facilitate the flow of data elements while improving the imbalance of digital power.Trust Law,Personal Information Protection Law,and Data Security Law have laid the institutional foundation for the construction of a data trust system,and local regulations have refined the regulation of data and data processing practices,but at present,China lacks a clear legal regulation on the data trust system.In this situation,data trusts face legal compliance dilemma due to the lack of specific legal level support,it is difficult to ensure the legality of trust data in the process of trust establishment,data controllers are restricted from becoming trustees of trusts,the content of existing fiduciary duties cannot effectively guarantee the realization of trust interests,and the interests of data trustees and beneficiaries may conflict.Therefore,China need to clearly distinguish the data authorization mechanism in the data collection and circulation process;expand the scope of trustees,set up a special chapter in the trust law to make special provisions on data trust matters,and allow other qualified subjects to enter into data trust as trustees,sign trust contracts with data subjects as trustees,and exercise data rights or conduct transactions and circulation of data elements on behalf of data subjects;introduce privacy risk assessment mechanism to judge the level of privacy risk that may be brought by data,and set the content of obligations of data trustees according to the nature of trustees respectively;guarantee the right to information of data trust beneficiaries,strengthen the external supervision of public interest data trusts,and improve the mechanism for protecting the interests of beneficiaries.