From Self-Determination To Faithfulness: Normative Construction Of The Principle Of Informed Consent In Personal Information Protection

In the age of big data and the swift emergence of new technologies,such as mobile networks and algorithms,informed consent is a fundamental principle in the safeguarding of personal data in many nations,and is also the foundation of China’s personal information protection regulations.The importance of informed consent in the safeguarding of personal information from various legislative levels has been firmly established by China’s Civil Code,Network Security Law,Personal Information Protection Law,and other laws,as well as the National People’s Congress on Strengthening the Protection of Network Information and other normative documents in recent years.However,the effectiveness of the principle of informed consent in practice has been questioned,and incidents of algorithmic discrimination,data leakage and data monopoly have emerged one after another.Currently,the structure of the informed consent principle is based on the traditional self-determination model,in which informed consent is presumed by the self-determination of a rational person.The self-determination model has also been the mainstream paradigm followed by China’s personal information legislation and explored by academics for a long time,yet it fails to address the risk of power imbalance between data subjects and data processors.Exploring the most advantageous route of the principle of informed consent has become a significant theoretical proposition for safeguarding personal data in the age of big data.To ensure a balanced power dynamic between data subjects and data controllers,and to avert the deprivation of data rights and unequal distribution of resources due to the unequal status of subjects,institutional design is a crucial factor.The introduction of a third-party data trust company between the data subject and the data controller can be seen as a way to create a data trustee,thus resolving the unequal rights between them,encouraging the sharing of data assets and protecting personal information rights,while simultaneously achieving a balance between the digital economy industry’s growth.The safeguarding of individual data rights can effectively reduce the difficulty of utilizing the concept of informed consent in practice,thus fostering the sustainable and beneficial growth of the digital sector.