"Average Refund of 170,000 Won per Person"... 'Sensitive Personal Data Collection' by Samjeomsam Raised at National Assembly Audit

Violation of the 'Minimum Collection Principle' and Exaggerated Advertising Confirmed
"SamzzumSam Convenience Should Be Provided by the National Tax Service" Pointed Out

The online tax refund platform 'SamzzumSam,' which has over 16 million users, came under scrutiny at the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee audit. Due to the platform's nature of collecting and holding sensitive personal information, there are calls for a monitoring system and grounds for enforcement.

[Photo by Jarvis & Villains]

On the 10th, Kim Young-sun, a member of the People Power Party, pointed out SamzzumSam during the Planning and Finance Committee audit, criticizing the situation where a private company collects, holds, and utilizes sensitive personal information, including 16.5 million users' Hometax IDs, passwords, health information, and credit card details, without any enforcement or corrective measures from the National Tax Service.

Kim stated, "Existing tax data includes taxpayers' sensitive information and is strictly managed under Article 81-13 (Confidentiality) of the Framework Act on National Taxes, which prohibits tax authorities from providing or leaking information to third parties. Even the National Assembly is denied access to individual tax information. However, in the case of SamzzumSam's access to Hometax, there is a lack of enforcement grounds by the National Tax Service," he pointed out.

He added, "Corrective actions and enforcement grounds are necessary to prevent personal information leaks from the platform and consumer harm caused by exaggerated advertisements."

According to the administrative sanctions confirmed by Kim from the Personal Information Protection Commission, Jarvis & Villains, the operator of the SamzzumSam platform, violated the 'minimum collection principle' by collecting sensitive personal information, including resident registration numbers and health information.

The Personal Information Protection Commission stated that SamzzumSam collected resident registration numbers from users to log in to Hometax, collect income-related information, obtain consent for tax agent appointments, and handle refund filing. During the investigation, procedures were improved, and now resident registration numbers are collected and used only when filing refund claims and are stored until membership withdrawal. However, SamzzumSam's collection and retention of resident registration numbers without legal grounds violated the Personal Information Protection Act.

Furthermore, SamzzumSam obtained broad consent through its processing policy when collecting income and other personal information but omitted collection items and provided unclear notices regarding collection purposes and retention periods. Additionally, when collecting information on users' (including dependents') disability status included in wage income statements, it failed to obtain separate consent for sensitive health information. When additional review was necessary, tax agents were allowed to file on behalf of users without explicitly informing users about the information provided to tax agents (third parties).

As a result, the Personal Information Protection Commission previously imposed a fine of 850 million KRW and a penalty of 12 million KRW.

Kim criticized, "Although SamzzumSam is a platform that helps withholding tax payers process tax refunds, exaggerated advertisements targeting consumers who do not qualify have frequently caused consumers to spend more money trying to reclaim taxes through the platform."

He continued, "Corrective actions and enforcement grounds are necessary to prevent personal information leaks and consumer harm caused by exaggerated advertisements. Ultimately, since people access this platform because they find self-tax filing through the National Tax Service's Hometax difficult, the information provided by SamzzumSam should be promptly made available first through the National Tax Service's Hometax."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.