The protection of the rights of subjects of genetic information in the rule-of-law state in terms of the development of information society

An urgent task of modern state is to find an optimal balance between providing society with socially important information and protecting the confidentiality of limited access information. In regard to genetic information, it is very important today to find such a balance and to determine the mechanisms for protecting the rights of owners of such information. Aim: to analyze the problems of protecting the rights of subjects of genetic information in the rule-of-law state in terms of the development of information society. Methods: empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic. Private scientific methods are used: legal-dogmatic and the method of interpretation of legal norms. Results: in the article, the author considers the development of the right to genetic information as a process caused by the development of ideas of the rule-of-law state. The author concludes that the protection of the right to genetic information is largely due to its legal nature. The legislation and various points of view on the nature of genetic information are analyzed. The author makes a conclusion that it is an independent type of personal data along with publicly available personal data, general personal data, special categories of personal data and biometric personal data. The extension of the personal data regime to genetic information is an important tool for protecting the rights of its owners, since it allows any subject of personal data to declare the inadmissibility of free circulation of data, and to impose a ban on its further use. The author concludes that when regulating relations in the field of genomic information as a type of personal data, the Federal law “On state genomic registration in the Russian Federation” should be considered as special in relation to the Federal law “On personal data”.