A legal mechanism is necessary to tackle the challenges for personal information. (XINHUA)

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The role of big data in our lives is expanding, posing new challenges for the protection of personal information. Gao Fuping is the director of the School of Intellectual Property at the East China University of Economics and Law. In an interview with People’s Daily, he shared his views on how to optimize the legal system of personal information protection in the era of big data.

 

People’s Daily: What principles can we adopt to protect personal information in the context of new technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence?

 

Gao Fuping: The rapid development of the internet fundamentally changed personal information in terms of content, form and application. Proper data usage is becoming an increasingly important issue. Of all sorts of data resources, personal information relates to individual dignity and freedom while touching upon social and public interests. Its protection and usage constitute a crucial part of the basic mechanism for big data.

Generally speaking, the protection of personal information should safeguard individual benefits while boosting the circulation of information. It should continue to emphasize that the collection, use and circulation of personal data shall not infringe on the basic rights of information subjects. Also, attention should be paid to the social nature of personal information that information subjects have the right to prevent others from the over-collection, abuse and leakage of personal information in a way that endangers individual rights and interests. Individuals also have the right to obtain legal relief. However, equal protection should be attached when personal information is collected, used and circulated by legitimate, proper and safe means.

 

People’s Daily: Nowadays, personal information is frequently abused. How should we further improve the law?

       
Gao Fuping: Legal protection should focus on preventing the abuse of personal information. In general, information subjects, whose right to know shall be protected, should be informed of the collection, use and circulation of personal information. The legal collection, use and circulation of private or sensitive individual information shall be premised on express consent by individuals who are fully informed, and, in certain particular cases, it should be directly restricted or prohibited. 

It should be noted that in practice, some legal norms for the collection and acquisition of personal information are not compatible with the current situation. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the legal norms for the use of users’ data and to increase punishment for the activities that may endanger personal information.     

     
People’s Daily: How should we further promote and boost personal information protection in the future?  

  
Gao Fuping: There is no fixed mode or method. We should draw lessons from practice at home and abroad while considering national conditions. Also, importance should be attached to the application of big data and the need to boost data economy. Furthermore, the potential risks and challenges brought by the development of big data should be measured.

Protecting users’ data is incredibly costly in terms of legal enforcement. It is crucial to develop a law-abiding consciousness toward privacy. Chinese enterprises need to implement the protection of personal information throughout each process of their production. Based on this principle, they should develop a system of data management and build the competence of legitimate data management as the core competitiveness.

 

This article was translated from People’s Daily.

(edited by MA YUHONG)