Korean Bar Association Urges Introduction of 'Three Livelihood Bills' Following Another Personal Data Leak at TVING

The Korean Bar Association has called for institutional improvements to assist victims of large-scale personal data breaches in seeking legal remedies.

In a statement issued today, the association expressed deep concern over the recent personal data leak incident at TVING, criticizing that similar incidents will continue to repeat unless the underlying structure is reformed.

Pointing out that an unprecedented scale of Connection Information (CI) of users was leaked in this incident, the association warned that victims will inevitably be exposed to targeted voice phishing and identity theft for a long time to come.

According to the public-private joint investigation team of the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 3rd, information belonging to approximately 39.54 million TVING accounts was recently leaked.

The leaked items span 20 categories (70 types in total), including IDs (including integrated CJ ONE IDs), passwords, names, dates of birth, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and Connection Information (CI).

The Korean Bar Association argued that the "Three Livelihood Bills" must be introduced to protect personal information and realize the rights of information subjects.

The "Three Livelihood Bills" refer to the discovery system, punitive damages, and class-action lawsuits.

The discovery system allows parties in a legal dispute to request and submit relevant evidence to each other prior to trial.

The punitive damages system imposes heavier compensation for malicious acts, while class actions allow a portion of victims to file a lawsuit so that the ruling applies to all victims if won.

Along with these institutional improvements, the association emphasized that a thorough fact-finding investigation must be conducted, countermeasures must be prepared by TVING, and a probe should be launched into its parent company, CJ Group, which holds management and supervisory responsibilities.

It added, "The right to self-determination over personal information is a fundamental constitutional right. This incident, which occurred less than a year after the Coupang crisis, must serve as an opportunity to fundamentally overhaul the personal data protection system."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.