Abstract:

 Although “data” has been included in the chapter of “Civil Rights” in The Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China, its legal status and approaches to protection are far from certainty. The first case of unfair competition for data in ChinaSina Weibo accusing Maimai of unfair completionreflects different understanding of user data by different parties: the plaintiff, the defendant and the court. Among the three approaches to date protection, namely,trade secret protection, the general clause of antiunfair competition law and data propertization, the right to data can provide the best protection of data, and what’s more, its reconciliation with the right to personal information may facilitate the formation of a predictable and flexible data protection system.

Key words: trade secrets, personal information, right to data, general clause, antiunfair competition law