The Mechanism of Personal Data Transfers of Social Network Users

Abstract

[Purpose/Significance] As a typical pattern of user-centered information service, social network has become increasingly pervasive throughout every aspect of users' lives, whereas resulting in some safety problems, for instance data abuse and data monopoly. Users' power of control over personal data has been weakened. The digital market has witnessed the incidence of restrained competition and suppressed innovation, which leads to the impaired vitality of the national digital economy. Nationally, much more attention has been drawn to the protection of users' data rights and interests. Likewise, with the advancement of information technology, it is possible to transfer users' data across platforms. However, the absence of management mechanism makes it impossible to bridge the gap of users' cross platform access, acquisition and transfer of personal data. Hence, on the basis of the investigation and analysis of international successful data transfer modes within the domestic digital network environment, this research aims to construct a personal data transfer mechanism for social network users for breaking the data blockade and protect their digital rights and interests. [Method/Process] To provide the insights into existing research on management mechanism of user's personal data transfer, this research has investigated and reviewed systematically the data transfer systems at home and abroad represented by Data Portability, California Consumer Privacy Protection Law and Anti-Monopoly Law, in such a way that a horizontal comparison from the aspects of system characteristics and connotation, and an analysis of the effectiveness and existing problems of a data transfer system in protecting user's data rights and breaking data monopoly were conducted. Furthermore, according to the characteristics of social network platform, some representative cases like Facebook, SoLiD, and WeChat were chosen to investigate and analyze the mode, characteristics and impact of user's personal data transfer, and then ten mainstream social network platforms at home and abroad were selected in terms of the different number of downloads, users and other indicators of a digital platform. From collecting content, transferable data to data format, a horizontal comparative analysis was conducted to summarize the mode and problems of data transfer on social network platforms. Finally, based on the users' needs of personal information resource management and government digital governance, this research has designed the whole process management organization structure of user personal data transfer, including trust mechanism, feedback mechanism, evaluation mechanism, deletion mechanism and supervision mechanism. To form a personal data transfer mechanism for social network users, the paths of user data acquisition, transfer and deletion were utilized and developed in the context of three phases, before, in and after the transfer. [Results/Conclusions] The data transfer mechanism empowers users' data to be transferred between different digital platforms, effectively breaking the monopoly of large-scale social network platforms on users' personal data. The free transfer of user data lowers the threshold for new entrants of social network services, addressing the significance of the data competition and innovation in the industry of information service. More significantly, some insights could be identified to promote the social network platform for optimizing the technology, product and service mode, and further enriching users' experience, which benefits the ecology-oriented development of digital industry.

Keywords

• right to data portability|social network|data transfer|management mechanism|data monopoly