There continue to be large leaks of personal information such as Resident Registration Numbers (Jumin deungnok beonho). There was a major incident in mid-February, and now there has been a leak of personal data on 7.71 million internet users. That is 62 percent of Korea's internet service users. The data includes people's names, Resident Registration Numbers, phone numbers, and in some cases family information. It scares you to just imagine how that information might be used.
Even more shocking is that the data was sold for less than one Won a person, far less than the average W50 per individual citizen two to three years ago, meaning obtaining private information has become much easier. That tells you something of how much personal data is floating around the internet.
A new law that took effect at the end of last year stipulates stronger penalties for collecting or using Resident Registration Numbers for wrongful purposes. However, stronger penalties are not enough. The fundamental solution will be to minimize the instances when that data must be collected and stored or find alternative means to confirm people's identities online.
Recognizing the problem the government came up with an alternative last year, but it left using that an optional choice for online companies. Naturally, business are not interested in the new identity confirmation method enough to pay the additional expense. Furthermore, the government's program is criticized for not completely preventing the danger that there will always be leaks of personal data. The country can no longer just watch the leaks happen, especially when it comes to Resident Registration Numbers. It needs to come up with a safer alternative and make its use legally compulsory and find ways to make companies delete the data they have been collecting.
The Hankyoreh, 5 April 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] New Laws Needed to Protect Personal Data |
