Is the Privacy Waybill Really Invisible? A Study of Courier Industry's Personal Information Protection

Abstract

[Purpose/Significance] The modern courier industry is developing rapidly and the demand for courier services is increasing. A large amount of personal information is involved in parcel waybills, and even if privacy waybills are used, there is still a risk of personal information exposure. This study attempts to examine whether invisible face slips in the courier industry can effectively protect users' personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Law implemented in November 2021 in China, and to propose feasible suggestions for the protection of personal information within the courier industry. [Method/Process] This study selected 9 major courier companies in China as the research object, and investigated and compared the courier agreement terms and privacy waybills by collecting each courier company. By comparing the terms of express agreement of each courier company, we investigated the perception and definition of personal sensitive information of the 9 major courier companies, and studied the general understanding and difference between personal information and personal sensitive information within the courier industry. By further comparing the invisible face sheet standards of each courier company and within the courier companies, we investigated the differences in the anonymization of parcel waybills and studied the implementation of invisible face sheet standards and differences in the courier industry. After completing the above investigation, the effectiveness of the courier industry in terms of personal information protection was compared by designing a personal information protection index and analyzing the variability among courier companies and within courier companies. [Results/Conclusions] The study found that there is no unified standard in the implementation of privacy waybills in China's courier industry, and the perception of sensitive personal information has not been unified, resulting in the phenomenon of different standards of privacy waybills among courier companies. The phenomenon of different invisible face sheet standards exists not only among courier companies, but also within courier companies. The specific problems are revealed by the different regionalization of invisible face sheet standards within courier companies, and this study classifies the degree of personal information protection into 3 levels, namely excellent, good and dangerous, with the excellent region of East China. In response to the phenomenon of different invisible face sheet standards in the courier industry, China needs to develop a special courier industry standard to reduce the problem of exposing users' personal information and form an information association with the different invisible face sheet standards implemented in parcel waybills. The study also found that the degree of impact and sensitivity of personal information varies in the use scenarios of different industries, and the Personal Information Protection Law has a broad definition of personal sensitive information, which requires the development of special definition standards depending on the circumstances of each industry to further strengthen the protection of personal information in China. This paper puts forward 3 feasible suggestions to address the above issues: first, to clarify the personal sensitive information involved in privacy waybills; second, to build a unified privacy waybill standard within the express industry; and third, to strengthen the implementation of promoting the unified standard.

Keywords

• personal information protection|anonymization|express information|privacy waybill