Is it illegal to spread chat records?

Legal analysis: first of all, it depends on whether the chat content belongs to a private matter unrelated to the public. Secondly, it depends on the subjective mentality of the publisher, whether there is a deliberate mentality, and whether there is a major fault in public behavior. If the answers to these two questions are yes, then public behavior is suspected of violating privacy. But just having the above elements of infringement is not enough to identify infringement. Because we usually chat with screen names, whether it constitutes infringement on the people chatting depends on whether some audiences know the corresponding relationship between screen names and actual users. If not, in fact, it is difficult to determine that the privacy of the other party has been violated. Therefore, the infringement of disclosing one's chat records cannot be generalized, but should be comprehensively identified according to the chat content, the public mentality, the relationship between the net name and the real name. However, only having the above elements of infringement is not enough to determine that the act of making public records constitutes an infringement of privacy. In fact, because the interlocutor of the chat record itself generally chats with the screen name, whether it infringes on the chat person depends on whether some audiences know the corresponding relationship between the chat screen name and the actual user.

Legal basis: Civil Code of People's Republic of China (PRC).

Article 1032 Natural persons have the right to privacy. No organization or individual may infringe upon the privacy rights of others by spying, harassing, exposing or making public.

Privacy is the private space, private activities and private information that natural people live in peace and don't want to be known by others.

Article 103 Unless otherwise provided by law or expressly agreed by the obligee, no organization or individual may commit the following acts:

(a) by telephone, SMS, instant messaging tools, e-mail, leaflets, etc. Disturb the private life of others;

(2) Entering, taking photos or peeping into other people's private spaces such as houses and hotel rooms;

(3) Shooting, peeping, eavesdropping or revealing other people's private activities;

(4) Shooting or peeping at the private parts of others' bodies;

(5) handling other people's private information;

(6) Infringe upon the privacy of others in other ways.