The Jurist ›› 2025, Vol. 0 ›› Issue (5): 15-26.

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The Criminal Law Protection of Citizens' Privacy Rights in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

LIU Xianquan   

  • Online:2025-09-15 Published:2025-09-15
  • About author:Liu Xianquan, Ph.D. in Law, Professor of Law School of East China University of Political Science and Law.

人工智能时代公民隐私权的刑法保护

刘宪权   

  • 作者简介:*刘宪权,法学博士,华东政法大学功勋教授、“经天学者”讲席教授。
  • 基金资助:
    本文系国家社科基金重大项目“网络时代的社会治理与刑法体系的理论创新”(20&ZD199)的阶段性研究成果;2023年度教育部人文社会科学研究基金项目“网络犯罪帮助行为的分流归责进路研究”(23YJC820022)的阶段性研究成果。

Abstract: In the era of conventional artificial intelligence, relevant technologies cannot create or alter the right holder of the right to citizens' privacy, but may give rise to novel legal interests of privacy such as “user behavior data profiles”.In the era of artificial narrow intelligence, the collection, processing, and reuse of personal information by generative AI are continually compressing the space in which citizens exercise their privacy rights.Citizens' privacy-control rights may shift from “notice-and-choice” to “default-and-accept”.Generative AI's data-processing capabilities can transform large volumes of low-sensitivity information into identifiable and then derivative privacy data through large-model inference.The super information-processing capability of artificial general intelligence's (AGI) robots may raise fundamental questions about the continuity of citizens' privacy rights.Current criminal law contains no standalone offense specifically targeting serious invasions of citizens' privacy rights; instead, it affords indirect protection by folding citizens' privacy rights under other personal-rights or social-management-orders provisions.There is still a common confusion in criminal law theory and judicial practice between citizens' privacy, personal information, and personal data.Chinese criminal law should add the crime of infringing citizens' privacy rights, establishing a regime of parallel direct and indirect criminal protection for citizens' privacy rights.The law needs to further clarify the standards for imposing management-negligence liability on platforms and technology providers.

Key words: Artificial Intelligence, Citizens' Privacy, Citizens' Personal Information, Crime of Infringing Citizens' Privacy Rights, Scope of Protection under The Criminal Law

摘要: 普通人工智能时代相关技术不能创设或改变公民隐私权的权利人,但可能催生出“用户行为数据画像”等新型隐私权法益。在弱人工智能时代,生成式人工智能对公民个人信息采集、处理和再利用的行为,正在不断压缩公民行使隐私权的空间。公民的隐私控制权可能从“知情—决定”向“默认—接受”转变。生成式人工智能处理数据的能力使大量“低敏感度”信息在经过大模型处理之后,具备了对个体的可识别性进而成为衍生性隐私数据。强人工智能机器人的超强信息处理能力可能引发公民隐私权存续问题的思考。现行刑法没有专门规制严重侵犯公民隐私权的独立罪名,而是将公民隐私权笼统地依附于其他人身权利或社会管理秩序之中予以间接保护。刑法理论与司法实践中仍普遍存在将公民隐私与公民个人信息以及公民个人数据相混同的情形。我国刑法应增设侵犯公民隐私权罪,以构建刑法对公民隐私权直接保护与间接保护并行的制度。法律需要进一步明确平台和技术提供者管理过失责任的认定标准。

关键词: 人工智能, 公民隐私, 公民个人信息, 侵犯公民隐私权罪, 刑法保护范围