Social Sciences in China, 2022

Vol. 43, No. 2, 2022

 

The Bundle of Personal Information Rights from the Perspective of State Protection

 

Wang Xixin

 

Abstract：The bundle of personal information rights refers to a set of rights belonging to the subject of personal information, including the right to know, decide, inquire, correct, copy, delete, etc. Such a bundle of rights is usually understood in Chinese civil rights legal circles as a civil right falling under the paradigm of individual autonomy and control, and is interpreted as a specific right to personal information. This understanding somewhat misinterprets the nature and function of the bundle of personal information rights. In terms of its nature, the bundle of personal information rights is the outcome of the state’s obligation to actively protect and empower individuals through institutional safeguards, and is thus essentially a means and a tool of protection granted to individuals by the state under the concept of protective law. In terms of its function, the bundle of personal information rights is both a tool enabling individuals to check and counterbalance processors of information and a strategy for the state to regulate data processors. Understanding the nature and functions of the bundle of rights from the perspective of state protection and regulation strategies helps to construct a fairer, more transparent and rational order of public law data governance under the concept of protective law and promotes the structural optimization and capacity enhancement of the data governance system. As an instrumental right under the state’s regulatory strategy, the implementation of the bundle of personal information rights needs to focus on facilitating the individual’s knowledge, participation and ability to negotiate under procedural justice, as well as the reasonable allocation of rights and obligations between individuals and information processors under distributive justice, with a view to continuously developing and enhancing the state’s regulatory rationality.

 

Keywords: protective law, protective duty of state, instrumental right, bundle of personal information rights, strategies for regulation