Will electronic eye monitoring reveal personal privacy?

"Electronic eye" is a common name for electronic monitoring probes. Currently, “electronic eyes” are installed in public places in many cities. As the "electronic eye" enters our lives more and more, people's views on the "electronic eye" are gradually divided into two categories. Some people believe that although the "electronic eye" has played a huge role in maintaining social security and traffic order, it also violates the privacy rights of citizens and makes citizens' every move completely under electronic surveillance. But others believe that public safety is higher than personal privacy.

Electronic eye monitoring

That is, closed-circuit television monitoring generally refers to the act of installing a camera in a public place and connecting it to a television monitor of an indoor monitoring center to monitor an unspecified public. This kind of monitoring can be an instant monitoring, or it can be made into a video tape and watched afterwards. According to different monitoring subjects and monitoring purposes, they can be divided into three categories:

First, camera surveillance in a private society is a self-protection measure taken to protect the rights and interests of the monitoring subjects themselves. Electronic monitoring such as supermarkets, banks, communities, factories, etc.

Second, the government monitors the camera for security. This kind of monitoring is carried out by the government, especially the public security organs, in order to fulfill their duties and provide security services for citizens. It is the performance of the government to improve its service means by means of high-tech means.

Third, the state's high-intensity camera surveillance for special security interests, such as the UK's recent high-intensity monitoring in the country, is a temporary measure and a very important measure taken by the government in an extraordinary period. Its purpose has gone beyond the traditional scope of providing security services, and has shifted to focusing on preventing and combating terrorism.

Several principles for electronic eye monitoring

The road to privacy development must be the path of conflict of interest and coordination. Then, how should we coordinate various interest disputes so that the right to privacy is protected to the maximum extent possible? The author believes that the scope of monitoring of electronic eyes must be strictly limited to the public domain and must be legally installed. At the same time, in the electronic eye monitoring problem, the following principles should also be observed:

First, limit the monitoring principles. There are clear provisions on the restriction of collection or direct principles in the German Federal Data Protection Act and the US Privacy Law, mainly that personal data should be collected directly from the parties without knowing the circumstances, and must not be collected secretly. . Specific to the monitoring of the electronic eye, it is required that a warning sign should be installed for the camera device, so that the party clearly knows that he is under the electronic eye surveillance.

Second, the purpose of the principle of restraint. That is, the installation of the electronic eye must have a reasonable, legal, and clear purpose, and the information obtained by the monitoring cannot be used for this specific purpose. For example, the information obtained by the public security organs based on camera monitoring can only be used for the purpose of maintaining law and order. It cannot be used for other purposes except as clearly stipulated by law.

Third, the principle of strict confidentiality. Electronic eye monitoring is not only for monitoring, but also for management control based on information obtained from monitoring. The most infringement of privacy rights is the improper dissemination of information obtained by surveillance, so this principle is particularly important.

Fourth, the principle of responsibility. In the case of a system that does not have compulsory and security, its enforceability is significantly reduced. If there is a violation of privacy in electronic eye surveillance, if the party cannot be effectively protected, the infringement phenomenon will appear in large numbers.

There are no clear legal provisions on electronic eye monitoring in countries around the world, but the legislation on personal privacy and personal information protection in Europe and the United States has been basically improved. The problems brought about by electronic eye monitoring can already be accommodated by relevant legislation. However, China's protection system for privacy rights has not been perfected, especially in the state compensation for the lack of compensation for moral damage caused by the protection of privacy rights. At present, the regulations on electronic eyes promulgated by Beijing, Chongqing, Chengdu and other cities are mostly to regulate the setting of electronic eyes from the perspective of administrative management. Although all regulations emphasize the protection of privacy rights, except for the regulations of Beijing, other regulations are too simple. There is no enforceability, and the local regulations are different, the specific requirements are different, and the protection of privacy is not perfect.