Human Rights Commission: "Local Governments' Practice of Arbitrary Access to Resident Information Must Be Improved"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Jo] The National Human Rights Commission announced on the 6th that it has recommended the Minister of the Interior and Safety to restrict access rights so that local government officials cannot arbitrarily access the Resident Registration Integrated Administrative System, which allows viewing of personal information.

The Human Rights Commission judged that "even if it is necessary to use personal information collected for the performance of administrative agency duties, viewing another person's personal information under the pretext of training or work cooperation exceeds the scope necessary to achieve the purpose of collecting and using personal information." It also pointed out that "civil service employees at resident centers have habitually accessed the moving-in registration program to view computerized information related to resident registration details for departmental work cooperation, etc.," and emphasized the need to improve the system by "creating access logs, displaying warning alert windows, or establishing a section to record the purpose of access."

Earlier, the Human Rights Commission received a complaint from a citizen who moved to a district in Busan, stating that an administrative welfare center employee A, who was familiar with the area, had identified the citizen's home address even before it was disclosed. At that time, employee A claimed that there was a practice of viewing necessary information from the moving-in registration details of civil petitioners if deemed necessary for official duties such as training new employees or delivering lost items, and that the complainant's information was accessed due to work-related necessity.

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