An Pyeonghwan, Gwangju City Council Member, "Bus Black Box Video Distribution... Privacy Invasion Concerns"

City "Will Take Action After Fact-Finding"

Concerns have been raised about privacy violations as black box footage from city buses crisscrossing every corner of Gwangju is being indiscriminately distributed on video sharing platforms.

An Pyunghwan, a member of the Gwangju Metropolitan Council (Buk-gu 1, Democratic Party), stated at the administrative audit of the Gwangju City Transportation Bureau on the 13th, “Videos presumed to be from city bus black boxes have been illegally leaked and are openly circulating on video sharing platforms,” adding, “There is a constant risk of citizens’ privacy being exposed, so thorough investigation and management are necessary.”

Considering that city bus black boxes record daily life across the entire Gwangju area from early dawn until late at night, Councilman An argues that the seriousness lies in the fact that citizens’ privacy can be fully exposed without any safety measures.

The footage played by Councilman An during the audit showed faces of students waiting for buses and license plates of vehicles passing accident scenes.

The Gwangju city government currently plans to verify whether the leaked videos are indeed black box footage and take appropriate action. If the investigation confirms that the circulating videos are black box footage, the bus companies responsible for management and the individuals who leaked the videos will face criminal penalties.

Under current law, transportation operators must install video recording devices in commercial vehicles and take necessary measures such as installing notice boards so that passengers can easily recognize them.

It is prohibited to arbitrarily manipulate the video recording devices, point them elsewhere, or record audio.

Additionally, transportation operators must take necessary measures to ensure the security of recorded videos to prevent loss, theft, leakage, alteration, or damage, and except when necessary for understanding traffic accident situations, investigating crimes, filing and maintaining prosecutions, or performing court trials, they must not use or provide the video recordings to others.

Relatedly, those who use video recordings for purposes other than intended or provide them to others, or fail to take necessary security measures resulting in loss, theft, leakage, alteration, or damage of recorded video information, are subject to imprisonment for up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won.

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