National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea B. Major Activities 1) Recommendations and Opinions on Human Rights Laws and Policies ■ Recommendation on Amending the Protection of Communication Secrets Act for the Better Protection of Personal Information during Investigations Since 2008, the amount of communication confirmation data provided to investigative agencies has been steadily increasing whereas the personal information of about 15% of the population is provided by telecommunication companies to investigative agencies without their knowledge. The Protection of Communications Secrets Act requires the permission from the competent district court for the acquisition of communication confirmation data. However, the term “when it deems necessary to conduct any investigation or to execute any punishment” as requirements for permission has been criticized as being too ambiguous to prevent investigative agencies from abusing it or to promote the protection of privacy. In this regard, the Commission recommended the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning to amend related legislation in order to strengthen the protection of personal information during the investigation process on February 10, 2014. The recommendations are as follows: i) to include the name, address, and resident registration number of users in “communication confirmation data” and to require court permission for access; ii) to strengthen requirements for access to the communication confirmation data by adding two other requisites such as, ‘relevance to the crime’ and, ‘relatedness of the required material to the case’ on top of the ‘need for investigation’ which is the sole existing requirement for a warrant; and iii) to require investigative agencies to prove that the real-time location data is the only option available for investigation when requiring such data. Chapter 1. Improvement of Laws, Regulations, Institutions, Policies and Practices ▪▪▪ 83