A few days ago, Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court of Zhejiang Province publicly heard a civil public interest litigation case of personal information protection, and decided that the defendants, Zou and Han, paid 30000 yuan and 15170 yuan respectively for damages against social and public interests, and publicly issued a statement of apology on the national media. In November 2019, Mr. Zou and Mr. Han developed the "nightlife" APP by themselves, attracting unspecified online users to click by using beautiful women's pictures as bait. Without the user's permission, they illegally obtained the mobile phone address book containing personal information such as name and phone number and uploaded it to the server for storage, and then downloaded it by others for extortion and criminal activities. It is reported that this app illegally obtained more than 180000 pieces of personal information of citizens, from which Zou and Han earned 30000 yuan and 15170 yuan respectively. On October 23, 2020, Hangzhou Binjiang District People's Court sentenced Zou to fixed-term imprisonment of three years and six months with a fine of 30000 yuan for the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information; Han was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 20000 yuan. Later, the Hangzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate acted as the public interest litigant, bringing a public interest lawsuit to the Hangzhou Intermediate Court on the grounds that the two defendants illegally collected personal information and infringed on the public interest. After the trial, the court held that the defendant, Mr. Zou and Mr. Han, who obtained a large amount of citizens' personal information by illegal means and profited from it, infringed on the personal information rights and interests of many natural persons, resulting in the risk that personal information of unspecified subjects could be illegally used by others, which constituted damage to social and public interests, so the defendant, Mr. Zou and Mr. Han, should bear corresponding civil liability according to law. The acts of the two defendants also caused serious mental harm to the public, so they should also publicly apologize. The court made the above judgment according to law. The judge said that the protection of personal information in the era of big data not only involves the protection of the personal rights and interests of natural persons, but also has a high attribute of social public interest. The Personal Information Protection Law clearly stipulates that personal information shall be handled in accordance with the principles of legality, legitimacy, necessity and integrity. No organization or individual may illegally collect, use, process or transmit personal information of others, or illegally trade, provide or disclose personal information of others. The purpose and method of the defendants, Mr. Zou and Mr. Han, in dealing with personal information did not have legitimacy, legitimacy and necessity. The amount of personal information they obtained illegally was large and involved a wide range, which seriously violated the personal information security of citizens, disturbed the peace of life of the people, threatened the personal and property security of unspecified natural persons, and constituted an infringement on social and public interests. Therefore, Zou and Han should bear the corresponding civil liability for compensation in accordance with the law, while assuming criminal liability in accordance with the law. (Outlook New Times)