People's Daily Online, Beijing, August 19 (Reporter Shen Jiaping) "Can you also sell in Moments?" "This operation is speechless" "Is it illegal to buy and sell social accounts?" Invalid # topic rushed to the hot search, causing heated discussions among netizens.
It is understood that Cheng Mou from Wuxi, Jiangsu has been a medical beauty consultant for many years. He is a "little Internet celebrity" in the circle and has a large number of fans.
In September 2019, Cheng transferred 9 WeChat IDs to Zhao for marketing at a price of RMB 500,000. Unexpectedly, Zhao finally paid only 300,000.
Because Zhao did not pay the balance of 200,000 yuan, Cheng sued to the court, asking Zhao to pay the balance and bear the responsibility for breach of contract.
The Jiangyin City People's Court held that the WeChat account sale and purchase agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant was invalid, and ruled to reject all the plaintiff's claims.
The court decision has settled, but the discussion of personal information security derived from this has not stopped.
Can a personal WeChat account be traded?
Is the relevant conduct illegal?
Around related issues, People's Net Finance interviewed legal experts.
Can WeChat accounts be bought and sold?
As the Internet becomes more and more closely related to people's real life, all kinds of virtual properties are continuously accumulated in the "cloud".
Several industry experts said that in recent years, new types of disputes involving the identification of the infringement nature of WeChat account transactions and breaking the rules of WeChat social platforms have begun to appear.
Wang Yuan, a partner of Beijing Gaoqin Law Firm and a member of the personal information protection expert group of the China Cyberspace Security Association, told People's Net Finance that the current principle of virtual property protection established by the Civil Code does not protect WeChat accounts with reference to virtual property. Clearly defined.
In this case, individuals have certain rights to dispose of WeChat accounts, but do not enjoy absolute exclusive control.
Reasonable use and benefit by third parties cannot be completely excluded.
In the above case, Cheng and Zhao are both engaged in the medical and aesthetic industry, and the transaction between the two parties is actually for the transfer of Cheng's customer resources.
It is the existence of these massive customer information that is the reason why Zhao paid a high price to buy a WeChat account.
The Jiangyin City People's Court stated that WeChat friends have identity and basic trust in the real-name authentication personal WeChat account.
The act of reselling the WeChat account used by oneself for others to use without notice, and the buyer posting information such as the circle of friends as the original user of the WeChat account is essentially a fraudulent act and violates the WeChat friend's right to know.
Wang Yuan said that in this case, the buyer Zhao can also ask Cheng to return the 300,000 paid, because the transaction is invalid, and the acquired property should be returned.
Although the transaction is judged invalid, the loss of personal information caused by the buyer and the seller to WeChat friends may not be completely recovered, because once personal information and privacy are leaked, the reproducibility and dissemination are very large.
"Under any circumstances, the buyer, Mr. Zhao, cannot continue to use the transferred WeChat account and related information."
The Jiangyin City People's Court specifically reminded that in recent years, criminals have used WeChat to commit fraud, gambling, pyramid selling and other illegal and criminal activities. .
From the perspective of protecting social public interests and citizens' information rights, even if a personal WeChat account has a certain economic value, it is not suitable for free trading.
What are the consequences of buying and selling personal information?
Recently, an online telecommunications fraud case handled by the Guangzhou Panyu District Procuratorate also involved the transfer of WeChat accounts.
From the end of 2020 to November 2021, Gu Mou (pseudonym), a "post-00" who rented in Panyu, collected WeChat accounts from others through Moments or introductions from acquaintances, and rented these WeChat accounts at a daily rent of 100 to 130 yuan. The prices ranging from yuan are rented out for advertising and marketing, and the difference is earned from it.
The rented WeChat account was used by a fraud gang to push fraudulent advertisements to the public, and the criminals obtained money from it.
At present, the first-instance judgment of the court has determined that the defendant, Gu, defrauded a huge amount and was an accomplice in the joint crime. He was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for the crime of fraud and fined 5,000 yuan.
"Personal information can be collected, reasonably used, and legally shared according to the law, but cannot be bought or sold illegally." Wang Yuan emphasized that the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information is the same crime of buying and selling, "violating relevant state regulations, selling or providing citizens' personal information to others", "stealing or providing personal information to others". "Illegal acquisition of citizens' personal information by other means" is a criminal act.
"In practice, illegal trading of address books is the most common and high-incidence type of crime convicted of infringing on citizens' personal information, with a maximum penalty of less than seven years in prison." Wang Yuan introduced that Article 253 of the Criminal Law stipulates that, Whoever sells or provides citizens' personal information to others in violation of the relevant state regulations, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also or only be fined; if the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and Penalty.
She also pointed out that the disposal of personal accounts also needs to comply with the rules of the platform, and any transfer or sale at will will violate the platform's WeChat account usage rules.
If an information processing institution (such as a unit or platform) fails to fulfill its obligations of information security and personal information protection, it needs to assume corresponding responsibilities in accordance with the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law, and the Personal Information Protection Law.