Commission's Major Activities
National Human Rights Commission of Korea Annual Report 2016
4. Key opinions submitted
A. Opinion submitted to the Constitutional Court regarding collection of
communication data by information and investigative agencies
On 28 November, the Commission submitted its opinion to the Constitutional Court that the
collection of communication data by information agencies and investigative agencies based
on paragraph 3, Article 83 of the Telecommunications Business Act could likely infringe upon
privacy autonomy.
In February 2014, the Commission had recommended the Ministry of Science, ICT and
Future Planning, the lead ministry, to delete the above said provision. However, this request had
not been accommodated.
Human rights defenders filed a constitutional appeal (2016Hunma388), stating that the law on
the provision of communication data violated the warrant requirement under the Constitution,
that the provision of communication data constituted legislative omissions, and thus was
unconstitutional due to the lack of an ex post notification requirement.
Investigative agencies have argued that communications data (name, resident registration
number, address, telephone, ID, etc.) they receive from communications service providers are
simply information that users provide when joining a service, and thus present insignificant
infringement upon the freedom and privacy of personal life and the freedom of communication.
On the other hand, the Commission submitted the opinion to the Constitutional Court that
there was the possibility of infringement of the right to informational self-determination as
the regulation mandating the provision of communications data was too broad in terms of
the subjects and in its purpose for collecting personal information, there was no ex ante or ex
post judicial control, and there were no procedures in place to notify people that their personal
information had been provided.
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