IMPROVEMENT OF CHINA’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION LAW: THE CASE OF YOUTHS’ FINGERPRINT SYSTEM

Fingerprint identification technology is currently being utilised in variety areas. Although China issued the Personal Information Protection Law in 2021, which addressed several legal and ethical difficulties in this sector, the protection of youths’ private information, particularly fingerprint information, remains inadequate. This research uses qualitative research methods to investigate the issue, including case analysis, secondary document review and comparative law method. We studied certain literature and questioned Chinese experts about how they see the public disclosure of fingerprint information of today’s youths and how they perceive the legal laws of fingerprint identification technology for youths, after analysing examples from the US, the EU, and France. Concerning the findings, it is important to note that incidents of fingerprint systems for adolescents have been described as prevalent and dangerous. Futher more, the current protection of fingerprint information involving youth still needs to be improved in China’s legislation. In China’s current legislative system, there is a lack of protection of fingerprint information of youth in the Civil Code, the Network Security Law, and the Personal Information Protection Law. Finally, to solve this problem, diversified legal governance approaches can be tried. For example, refining the relevant provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law, strengthening cyber justice, and enhancing citizens’ legal education. Multi-level coordination to control the leakage of fingerprint data and protect the privacy of citizens, especially youth.