Before cooling off from the disturbing news of credit card personal data leakage, approximately 12,000,000 KT customers face exposure of personal data again. In July, 2012, it had already been reported that personal information of 8,700,000 had been exposed over the span of five months. KT enacted the ‘Countermeasures to prevent further hacking of customers’ personal information Policy’ in August. Nonetheless, within six months from the enactment of the policy, the data had been exposed again for over a year. This shows the potential dangers of the current personal identification system and the policy that permits indiscreet collections of personal data.
The purpose of the Personal Information Protection Act (the ‘Act’) is to strictly prohibit non-official entities from collecting personal information and to only permit exceptionally. Why is the government applying the ban solely against the Internet companies, and yet not doing anything about telecoms?
This is because the three telecoms have been designated as the Identity Verification Agencies. We have warned that this system could bring about bigger problems of concentrating personal data into certain organizations. The companies that have caused the stir on the personal information leak, KCB and KT, are actually both Designated Identity Verification Agencies. Designating one or two entities as the official identity verification agency itself holds risks of bigger problems, and should be abolished. And yet, Science, ICT, Future Planning, Broadcasting & Communications Committee of the National Assembly is contemplating a ‘the mobile phone real-name registration system’. We have voiced our concerns that this is going against the flow of the world, not to mention its infringement of privacy. Fortunately, this proposal has not been passed yet, and we encourage that this bill be immediately forfeited.
Please read the Korean original here.
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