Recently, Ms Wu in Guangzhou found that she had cancelled her mobile phone number without unbinding the Baidu.com disc associated with the number, and the new owner of the number logged on to this Baidu.com disc and not only viewed Ms Wu's photos, privacy and address book, but also repeatedly verbally harassed her.
Accordingly, JAVY LAW FIRM partner Tian Qiujing was interviewed by Beijing Traffic Radio to explain such incidents.
Q: Did the new number owner's behaviour violate Ms Wu's privacy?
Lawyer Tian Qiuying:
The new number owner's act of logging into the Baidu.com disc that does not belong to her and checking photos, privacy and address book has been suspected of violating other people's privacy.
When Ms Wu cancelled her mobile phone number, she did not unbundle the associated Baidu.com disc, but it does not mean that she gave up the personal information and privacy in the disc. The new owner's viewing of the original owner's photos, privacy and address book despite knowing that the netbook did not belong to her constituted an invasion of the original owner's privacy. The new number owner could have contacted Ms Ng to tell her to unbind the netbook after discovering that Ms Ng had not unbound it, or could have informed the netbook's customer service to communicate a solution, instead of repeatedly logging in to snoop on Ms Ng's privacy. The Civil Code provides that natural persons have the right to privacy and that no one can pry, intrude or disclose the privacy of others.
Q: Is repeatedly contacting the former owner of the number to send private photos, etc., considered harassment?
Lawyer Tian Qiuying:
For the new number owner had repeatedly, through WeChat, applied to add Ms Wu and called Ms Wu for verbal harassment, these behaviours clearly exceeded the scope of normal communication, and the content made the original number owner feel uncomfortable and disturbed, affecting the normal life of the original number owner, which should constitute harassment. The Civil Code also stipulates that no one may intrude into the peace of other people's private lives by means of telephone calls, text messages, instant messaging tools, etc., and that no one may harass, intimidate, or defraud other people, thus affecting the normal lives of other people.
Q: Nowadays, there are countless Internet accounts that need to be associated with a mobile phone number, what else should I do before cancelling the number in order to guard my privacy and security?
Lawyer Tian Qiuying:
Firstly, you can contact the customer service of the netbook and inform about the changed phone number, the netbook will usually have a process to change the bound mobile phone, so that you can prevent the new number owner from logging in to the netbook by means of the mobile phone number verification code from the source.
In addition, you can call the police, because the harassment of the new owner has affected the normal life of the original owner, the public security organs can stop the harassment of the new owner. If it has caused other economic losses, you can also sue the new owner by way of civil lawsuit, requiring him to bear the responsibility of compensation.
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