2。 be illegal
3. Different regions have different standards, but you can consult a lawyer.
4. First, the legal status of privacy protection in China
1. The Constitution protects citizens' right to privacy. The Constitution protects the privacy of citizens. The constitutions of most countries directly or indirectly stipulate the contents of protecting personal privacy, especially the provisions that the residence is not illegally violated and the communication secret is protected are very common. The direct or indirect provisions on the protection of privacy in the Constitution also provide a basis for other laws to protect privacy from different angles. Article 39 of the Constitution stipulates: "The houses of the people and citizens of China are inviolable. It is forbidden to illegally search or illegally invade citizens' houses. "This provision of the Constitution can be regarded as a direct confirmation and protection of the right to privacy, and it explicitly prohibits two kinds of torts that violate the peace of private life: illegal search or illegal intrusion into citizens' houses. This provision of the Constitution provides a basis for criminal law and civil law to protect citizens' private life and peace respectively. Article 40 of the Constitution stipulates: "The freedom and privacy of communication of People's Republic of China (PRC) citizens shall be protected by law. When the public security organs and procuratorial organs check the communication in accordance with the procedures prescribed by law, no organization or individual may infringe upon citizens' freedom and privacy of communication for any reason, except for the needs of national security or the investigation of criminal offences. "This view includes the protection of citizens' communication in two aspects, one is the protection of freedom of communication, and the other is the protection of communication secrets. The former belongs to the category of freedom, while the latter belongs to the category of privacy.
2. Criminal law protects citizens' right to privacy. Protection of Citizen's Privacy in Criminal Law Although the concept of "privacy" or "privacy right" is not directly used in Criminal Law, several clauses in it can be understood as including the protection of citizen's privacy. Article 131 of the Criminal Law stipulates: "Protect citizens' personal rights, democratic rights and other rights from illegal infringement by anyone or any organ. If the circumstances of illegal infringement are serious, the person directly responsible shall be given criminal sanctions. "This is a declarative provision, which reflects the overall attitude of China's criminal law towards citizens' personal rights and democratic rights. If other laws and regulations interpret the right to privacy as a part of personal rights, the right to privacy is of course protected by criminal law. Article 131 of the Criminal Law stipulates: "Illegally controlling another person's body, or illegally searching another person's body or house; Or illegally invade another person's house, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention. " Illegal search or intrusion into other people's houses is one of the cases of infringement on citizens' privacy, which belongs to infringement on citizens' personal privacy. This provision of criminal law is conducive to protecting citizens' private life and peace, and can also be regarded as the embodiment of Article 39 of our Constitution. Article 149 of the Criminal Law stipulates: "Whoever conceals, destroys or illegally opens other people's letters and infringes upon the right to freedom of communication, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than one year or criminal detention." Article 191 of the Criminal Law stipulates: "Postal workers who open, conceal or destroy mail and telegrams without permission shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years or criminal detention." Concealing or destroying other people's letters is an act of violating the right to freedom of communication. Opening other people's letters without permission not only violates other people's right to freedom of communication, but also undoubtedly violates other people's right to privacy of communication, which is an act of infringing citizens' personal privacy.
3. Protection of citizens' right to privacy by procedural law. Relevant provisions of the procedural law Article 66 of the Civil Procedure Law stipulates that "evidence shall be presented in court and cross-examined by the parties. Evidence involving state secrets, commercial secrets and personal privacy shall be kept confidential. If it needs to be presented in court, it may not be publicly presented. " Civil trial is an activity of exercising state public power. The parties will present some evidence to prove their claims, and the court may also collect evidence ex officio. This evidence may involve personal privacy, including the parties and outsiders. In this case, the parties may request "to show it when the trial is closed", and the people's court shall allow it. The people's court may also take the initiative to rule that certain evidence should not be produced in public hearings to protect the privacy of the parties or outsiders. There are many provisions on protecting citizens' personal privacy in China's criminal procedure law. Paragraph 3 of Article 60 stipulates that if the accuser or prosecutor refuses to disclose his name, he shall keep it confidential during the investigation; Article 64 stipulates that the defendant has the right to refuse to answer questions irrelevant to the case; Articles 79 to 83 stipulate that searches must go through legal procedures.
4. Protection of citizens' right to privacy by civil law or tort law. Relevant provisions of the Civil Law Article 10 1 of the General Principles of the Civil Law stipulates that citizens and legal persons enjoy the right of reputation, and the personal dignity of citizens is protected by law. The General Principles of Civil Law does not directly stipulate the protection of citizens' personal privacy, but generally stipulates that citizens' personal dignity is protected by law, which leaves a large space for judicial interpretation. It is generally believed that the right to privacy should be a part of personal dignity. The first paragraph of Article 140 of the Supreme People's Court's Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Implementation of the General Principles of the Civil Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "If the privacy of others is disclosed in written or oral form, or the personality of others is publicly vilified by fabricating facts, and the reputation of others is damaged by insulting or slandering, which has certain influence, it shall be deemed as an act of infringing on the right of reputation of citizens. "the Supreme People's Court once again emphasized in" Answers to Several Questions on the Trial of Honorary Cases "(1August 7, 993):" Publishing other people's privacy materials or disclosing other people's privacy in written or oral form without other people's consent, which causes damage to others' reputation, shall be punished as infringement of others' reputation rights. " "If there is a disclosure of privacy in the text, which leads to damage to its reputation, it shall be deemed as infringement of the reputation of others. "This judicial interpretation is roughly similar to the judicial interpretation mentioned above. Serious violations of citizens' privacy rights include: (1) illegal intrusion into other people's houses, including illegal search; (2) Serious violation of citizens' freedom and privacy of communication; (3) Relevant professionals violate professional ethics requirements or industry management regulations, and disclose the privacy of others they know in their business, thus causing serious consequences to the victims; (4) Other acts that seriously infringe the right to privacy and cause serious consequences such as serious damage to the victim's personal dignity.
5. Protection of citizens' privacy by other laws. Other laws, especially administrative regulations, also have provisions to protect privacy from different angles. For example, the Law on the Protection of Minors gives special protection to the privacy of minors; Laws and regulations regulating the relationship between landlord and lessee protect the privacy of lessee; In some countries, legislation on computers and data protects citizens' privacy. Because government departments and judicial organs often become the subjects of privacy violations, the State Compensation Law has made special provisions on this. Because news media often become the subject of infringement of privacy, some countries' news legislation has made special provisions on this. Labor legislation should make corresponding provisions on the protection and restriction of workplace privacy. In addition, the law also makes special provisions on the professional norms of doctors, accountants, lawyers and other professionals.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the right to privacy and a series of rights related to it were gradually stipulated in the Constitution and other legal departments of our country. However, it is worth noting that there is no corresponding direct provision in the legislation of privacy right in China. The protection of privacy is scattered in some laws, regulations and rules. Together with the provisions on privacy protection in civil law, procedural law and administrative law, these provisions can effectively protect citizens' personal interests and dignity from illegal infringement, and play a positive role in raising citizens' awareness of rights, establishing civilized and healthy social morality and promoting the construction of socialist spiritual civilization.
Second, the limitations of China's privacy protection law
1986 When the General Principles of the Civil Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) was formulated, due to the legislators' insufficient understanding of the right to privacy, this law only stipulated the right to life and health, the right to name, the right to portrait, the right to reputation and the right to honor, but did not stipulate the right to privacy as a citizen's personality right. This is an oversight in legislation, so the legal source of our country can partly turn to the Constitution and the judicial interpretation of the Supreme People's Court. However, in fact, China's constitution has the limitation that its provisions can only be cited in specific cases after being interpreted by the Supreme Court. Therefore, if the right of privacy only stays in the abstract personality right of the Constitution, its protection will always be flawed. In addition, the Supreme People's Court's judicial interpretation indirectly protects the right to privacy through the right to reputation, but the act of infringing the right to privacy does not necessarily infringe the right to reputation, nor does it necessarily stipulate that the right to privacy is only a "personality interest". With the further development of computer and network, the problem of privacy will be more acute in modern society, which will lead to a serious gap in our legislation and judicial confusion.
The limitations of legal protection of privacy in China are as follows:
1. Although there are contents related to privacy protection in the Constitution, they are limited to personal, residential and correspondence secrets. There is no concept of privacy in our Constitution, and the right to privacy has not been elevated to the height of citizens' constitutional rights.
2. As a basic civil law, General Principles of Civil Law has no content of privacy protection.
3. Constrained by the Constitution and the General Principles of Civil Law, although other laws and judicial interpretations after the General Principles of Civil Law have stipulated the content of privacy protection, the right to privacy has not yet become an independent personality right, and the concept of "privacy" has not been clearly put forward in relevant provisions, and privacy is only protected as a personality interest.
4. The provisions on privacy protection are either roughly summarized or limited to the protection of a certain privacy, and there are no systematic, comprehensive, specific and clear provisions on privacy and its specific content.