Zeng Runxi, Zhu Liping, Hu Jinxiu
[Purpose/Significance]The legal benefit of private information in the era of big data has become a research hotspot at home and abroad.Scientific mining and revealing the knowledge structure and cutting-edge trends in this field can provide references for subsequent research.[Method/Process]Based on existing litterature, the relationship model, document structure, historical evolution and cutting-edge topics of foreign research knowledge of the legal benefits of private information were visually analysed.[Result/Conclusion]Firstly, foreign research knowledge has experienced five stages, which are the budding of traditional information, the start-up of mainframes, the understanding of the Internet, the deepening of social media, and the expansion of big data.Secondly, the development of personal solitude and four types of privacy infringements, personal information personality and property rights control, privacy culture and social norms & other legal interests, personal information identifiable, anonymized and re-identified, and five research lines for the legitimacy of the use and protection of private information was presented.Finally, it coverd three levels of "legacy of traditional privacy information, legal benefits of new privacy information and the legitimacy of privacy information control" and nine clusters of "privacy, personal information, data protection, personal data, surveillance, consent and confidentiality".It mainly involved frontier hotspots such as self- determination control, property right confirmation, balance of legal interests, reasonable expectations, risk assessment, informed consent, and insensitivity to violations.