Fans buy flight information only to fly with idols
Airline staff touts flight information case opens
□ Our reporter Huang Jie
□ Bai Chuxuan, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
A group of people holding mobile phones and cameras, quickly gathered in one direction, and the originally quiet corner of the airport was instantly filled with shutter sounds and screams.
In recent years, airport congestion and aircraft delays caused by fans chasing stars have often affected civil aviation safety.
People can't help but wonder: Why do fans always know the star's itinerary accurately?
How was the personal privacy information of citizens, including celebrities, leaked?
Recently, a case of infringing on citizens' personal information was publicly heard in the Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing.
Two airline employees were charged with violating citizens' personal information for selling aircraft manifests and other citizens' personal information, and two fans were also charged with buying the information involved.
Flight information becomes a "commodity"
On January 20, 2021, at Beijing Capital International Airport, airport police seized a person who tried to board the plane using another person's ID card.
It is reported that the person is a fan of a certain star, so he made this decision in order to be on the same plane as his idol.
Later, based on the fan's record of purchasing citizens' personal information, the police found that an airline employee sold resident ID numbers and flight track information to multiple fans through WeChat channels.
Qin, who worked in customer service at an airline and was responsible for inquiring flight and ticket information, and Li, a former employee of an airline, had a large amount of passenger identity, communication, flight and other information in their hands.
The two felt that this was an unmissable "business opportunity", so they took advantage of the convenience of their positions and sold them at a clear price.
According to Qin's confession, since 2019, she began to sell citizens' personal information, taking pictures of the business class manifest and selling it "in whole".
According to police verification, between 2020 and 2021, Qin and Li illegally obtained personal information of citizens and sold them to others, including 1,964 pieces of information about the whereabouts of others taking flights, illegally making more than 17,000 yuan, and 370 pieces of other citizens’ personal information. Articles, illegal profits of more than 23,000 yuan.
In addition, Qin and Li also separately obtained and sold personal information through their own channels, making profits of more than 6,000 yuan and 18,000 yuan respectively.
The police found that many celebrities were involved in the flight tracks and other information sold by Qin and Li.
After obtaining the manifest information, fans will chase the stars up close by changing seats.
Zhang, who was sued in this case, is a college student who is keen on star chasing. He purchased 426 pieces of information about the whereabouts of others taking flights from Li, and 78 pieces of personal information of other citizens.
According to Zhang, every time she provided the star's flight number, the seller would take a photo of the manifest and sell it to her at a price of 15 yuan per order.
If you want to check the ID number or passport number of a specific person, you need to charge a separate fee ranging from 100 yuan to 200 yuan.
Xu, who is also a fan, purchased 192 pieces of information about the whereabouts of others taking flights from Li and Qin, and 8 pieces of personal information of other citizens.
The nature of the manifest becomes the focus of debate
During the trial, the arguments between the prosecution and the defense mainly revolved around whether the manifest information of the name displayed in pinyin and the personal historical whereabouts belong to the personal information of citizens.
In this regard, the prosecutor pointed out in the court that the manifest contains flight number, flight date, flight segment information, passenger name, passenger class, number of ticketers, booking date, etc.
After the integration of these key information, it can be determined that a certain day and a certain passenger take a certain flight, which has the effect of positioning for natural persons, which belongs to the leakage of geographical location, which has violated the personal privacy of citizens, and the leakage and illegal use of relevant information. It will cause potential harm to the life and property safety of others.
The defenders of Qin and Li retorted that the defendant sold a small amount of information, most of which were manifests, and the information on the manifest was the names of all passengers on a certain flight. The defendant subjectively thought that he was only a The passenger's name information was betrayed.
Moreover, it can be seen from the price of the sales manifest that the defendant's subjective maliciousness is not large.
The two sides also debated whether there is double counting of historical trajectory information.
Qin's defender pointed out that among the personal information sold, there are dozens of historical action trajectories of the same citizen, but these are all aimed at the same person, so they should be regarded as one piece of information.
However, the prosecutor believes that although some of the historical whereabouts are aimed at the same person, each historical whereabouts reflects a different time and place, involving multiple geographic locations and personal privacy.
Therefore, each entry should be calculated separately.
"In terms of quantity, there are 1,964 pieces of information jointly sold by Qin and Li, and the circumstances are particularly serious."
In court, Zhang and Xu, two fans who sat in the dock for chasing stars, kept wiping away their tears, repeatedly emphasizing that they only bought the information because of chasing stars, and never thought that it might constitute a crime.
Procuratorate filed a public interest lawsuit
Wang Xing, prosecutor of Chaoyang District People's Procuratorate, told reporters: "In addition to prosecuting Qin and Li, we also found that most of the illegally trafficked information was unknown in the performance of our public interest litigation duties. The behavior infringes on the privacy rights of an unspecified majority of people, and may lead to various illegal and criminal activities such as fraud and illegal debt collection. Therefore, the two should also bear civil liability for their acts of infringing on citizens' personal information and harming social and public interests."
In order to safeguard social and public interests, the Chaoyang District Procuratorate filed a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit against Qin and Li, requesting that the two be ordered to publicly apologize on the national-level media for infringing on citizens' personal information, and to cancel the accounts used to buy and sell citizens' personal information. , permanently delete the relevant information and data, and compensate 47,000 yuan and 59,000 yuan respectively according to the profit situation.
"As a public interest litigation plaintiff, sue the defendant to bear the tort liability for infringing citizens' personal information. More importantly, it is to protect citizens' information security and freedom from infringement, warn the defendant and the public, and promote the concept of personal information protection to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people." Wang said the star.
At present, the trial of the case is over, and the court will choose a date for sentencing.
After the trial, Shang Dengyu, the presiding judge of the case, said in an interview: "Some people may come into contact with some personal information of other citizens in their work, but they must stick to the bottom line of their duties. As for 'fans' 'When chasing stars and inquiring about other people's personal information, you must pay attention to 'degree'. Once you cross the red line of the law, you must bear the corresponding legal consequences, and may even be criminally liable."