以“最小必要原则”弥合电商语境下知情同意规则的漏洞——基于隐私政策的实证研究

Bridging the Loopholes of the Informed Consent Rule in the E‑Commerce Context Via the “Minimum Necessary Principle”—An Empirical Study Based on Privacy Policies

摘要: 随着数字经济快速发展，电商平台在处理用户个人信息过程中面临的合规性问题日益突出。基于知情同意规则构建的隐私政策是企业保护个人信息的核心文本，但目前面临巨大的隐患和风险。最小必要原则作为兜底性条款和个人信息处理的基本原则可有效弥补知情同意规则的不足，完善平台的信息保护体系。本研究以最小必要原则为核心视角，采用BERTopic等自然语言处理技术对179份隐私政策文本进行系统性实证分析，旨在揭示电商平台隐私政策的文本特征、主题分布及情感倾向，并探索其与非电商平台的差异性表现。基于实证研究，提出规范最小必要内涵、改良隐私政策文本、强化用户自主权利、完善监督管理体系的优化进路。

Abstract: With the rapid development of the digital economy, compliance issues encountered by e‑commerce platforms in the processing of users’ personal information have become increasingly prominent. Privacy policies, established on the basis of the rule of informed consent, serve as the core legal instrument for enterprises to protect personal information, yet they currently face significant barriers and risks. As a catch‑all provision and a fundamental principle governing personal information processing, the Minimum Necessary Principle can effectively remedy the deficiencies of the informed consent rule and improve the information protection system of platforms. Taking the minimum necessary principle as the core perspective, this study adopts natural language processing technologies such as BERTopic model to conduct a systematic empirical analysis of 179 privacy policy texts. It aims to reveal the textual characteristics, topic distribution and sentiment tendencies of privacy policies on e‑commerce platforms, and further explore their differences compared with non‑e‑commerce platforms. Based on the empirical findings, this paper proposes that platforms and regulators clarify the connotation of the Minimum Necessary Principle, improve the drafting of privacy policy texts, strengthen users’ autonomous rights, and perfect the supervision and management system.