The Report on Human Rights Situation in the Republic of Korea
3. Privacy and the Right to Self-Determination of Personal
Information
A. Human Rights Status 2021
Privacy refers to the right to not have his/her privacy made public, not to be
hindered in creating and developing his/her privacy and to be able to manage and
control the information related to him/herself. Article 12 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights includes privacy as one of the human rights by
stating that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy,
family, home or correspondence ... [and] everyone has the right to the protection
of the law against such interference.” Article 17 of the ICCPR also stipulates the
right to not be interfered with personal privacy, family, home or correspondence
and to be protected by law against such interference or attacks.
Privacy in the US was understood as an issue of defamation under the criminal
law or liability for an unlawful act under the civil law, but under the influence of
‘The Rights to Privacy’ written by Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis in 1890,
it became a constitutional right through a Supreme Court case in 1965. Privacy in
France was also established through the case law, but in 1970, Article 9 of the Civil
Code included a provision on privacy and is now recognized as a constitutional
right.
Article 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea guarantees privacy by
stipulating that “[t]he privacy of no citizen shall be infringed.” Moreover, the
general human rights derived from the first sentence of Article 10 of the
Constitution which stipulates that “[a]ll citizens shall be assured of human worth
and dignity and have the right to pursuit of happiness,” and the right to the
self-determination of personal information derived from the guarantee of privacy
stipulated in Article 17 are the rights for the data subject to make self-determination
on when, to whom and the scope of the personal information being used and
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