"Privacy Invasion Due to Public Institution Audit Document Disclosure"…Human Rights Commission Recommends Agency Warning

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) recommended that the district mayor issue a formal warning to the public corporation under the basic local government that publicly disclosed the attendance request letter for the audit subject, and also recommended conducting education on personal information protection.

On the 5th, the NHRCK stated, "Employees responsible for audit tasks should have taken care to prevent information related to the audit from leaking externally, but confidentiality regarding the audit was not guaranteed."

Previously, the complainant filed a petition with the NHRCK, claiming that Public Corporation A, affiliated with a district office in Gwangju Metropolitan City, publicly disclosed the attendance request letter during the audit and did not set security on audit-related documents.

The corporation responded, "The public letter being set to public access was a mistake due to the staff's lack of experience," and added, "We recognized this during the on-site investigation and corrected it by setting it to private."

The NHRCK judged that the complainant's right to self-determination over personal information was violated, stating, "Given that it was confirmed that some documents were viewed by employees during the audit and no issues were raised, it is possible that others also became aware of the information."

Furthermore, during the investigation, the NHRCK confirmed that other documents besides those raised in the complaint were also publicly accessible and pointed out problems in Public Corporation A's personal information management system.

The NHRCK recommended that the district mayor in charge issue a formal warning to Public Corporation A and conduct education on personal information and document security for all employees of the corporation.

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