The budget mobile industry has focused on expanding its subscriber base through a low-cost structure, but internal management systems for personal information protection have proven inadequate. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) found multiple violations of privacy laws among eight major budget mobile operators, including the unauthorized collection of resident registration numbers and the failure to encrypt financial information.
On November 11, the PIPC held a plenary meeting and decided to impose a total fine of 60.9 million won and an administrative penalty of 110.4 million won on the eight budget mobile service providers for their violations of personal information protection laws. Additionally, corrective orders and public disclosure orders were issued.
The companies involved include KT M Mobile, Media Log (U+ Mobile), S1 (Ansim Mobile), LG HelloVision (Hello Mobile), SK Telink (SK Seven Mobile), Unicomz (Mobing), KB Kookmin Bank (KB Live Mobile), and KT Skylife (Skylife Mobile).
The PIPC's investigation revealed that the budget mobile sector's focus on low-cost business models and subscriber growth has led to insufficient personal information management systems. Basic safety measures, such as failing to dispose of personal information after the retention period and inadequate management of access rights and access logs for personal information processing systems, were neglected.
Specific violations varied by operator. KT M Mobile and Unicomz collected resident registration numbers without legal justification while selling SIM products on their websites. Media Log was found to have collected resident registration numbers without legal grounds while processing requests to change the billing party to a third party during the online subscription and activation process.
Operators that violated the obligation to encrypt personal information were also identified. SK Telink, LG HelloVision, KT M Mobile, and Media Log stored resident registration numbers, credit card numbers, and account numbers in plain text without encryption. KT Skylife and Unicomz failed to maintain access rights management records for personal information processing system handlers for at least three years, while LG HelloVision neglected to keep access logs for handlers.
The PIPC imposed fines of 13.7 million won on KT M Mobile and 47.2 million won on Media Log for processing resident registration numbers without legal grounds. The total fines for these two operators amounted to 60.9 million won. In addition, a total of 110.4 million won in administrative penalties was imposed for other violations of personal information protection laws, along with corrective orders and public disclosure orders.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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