Human Rights Commission: "Accessing Location Information of 112 Callers Without Emergency Is Unjustified"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] The National Human Rights Commission has ruled that accessing the location information of a reporter who made a 112 text report in a non-emergency situation without consent constitutes a violation of the right to personal information self-determination.

On the 24th, the Human Rights Commission also announced that it recommended the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency to conduct case dissemination and job training for 112 situation room personnel, and to prepare and implement detailed manuals for assessing the necessity of location tracking and its management.

According to the Human Rights Commission, complainant A made four 112 text reports from 8:09 a.m. to 9:56 a.m. on June 21, 2018.

The police ordered patrol cars to dispatch starting from the third report, and when A's location could not be confirmed, they accessed the location information. The police classified the response codes for the four reports as codes 2 to 4. Codes 2 to 4 indicate non-emergency and non-dispatch codes.

The police stated, "Although the situation at the time was not an emergency rescue or a report related to bodily harm or life, there were occasional cases where the situation was confirmed as urgent due to the reporter's location not being accurately displayed and unclear circumstances," and explained that location tracking was an unavoidable measure.

The Human Rights Commission explained, "For the police to access the reporter's location information, they must obtain the consent of the information subject or have an urgent necessity according to the Act on the Protection and Use of Location Information." They added, "In this complaint case, it was confirmed that there was no consent from A, and despite the report being classified as non-emergency, tracking A's location because it could not be confirmed constitutes a violation of the right to personal information self-determination."

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