Principles and Limitations of Using Personal Location Data for Public Interest: Implications for Legislative Technology of Personal Data Protection Act

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic situation shows an aspect of accelerating the digital transformation, which has been discussed as the goal of government policy. This transformation process not only enhances individual freedom, but also induces restrictions and controls aimed at the public interest. This article focuses on the legislative issue surrounding the disclosure and utilization of movement information about confirmed patients, which was a problem during the recent COVID-19 pandemic period. Controversy over government guidelines surrounding the disclosure of the movement about confirmed patients made it clear that it is not simply whether such administrative measures complied with legal requirements, but that the balance between public interest values and private values of privacy is important. Based on this premise, this article reviewed the problems of the discourse on the use of personal data or personal location data for public interest purposes in terms of legislative technique. Korea's Personal Data Protection Act frequently utilizes very convenient legislative technique in setting comprehensive exceptions for the purpose of public interest. In conclusion, the ultimate issue in the use of personal data for public interest is not the protection of identification information and its exceptions, but whether or not the privacy and private life of the data subject can be practically protected. Nonetheless, the current legislation focuses only on establishing a comprehensive exception category in terms of legislative technique. In order to overcome these problems and develope legislation for privacy protection in the new era, it is necessary to devise new legislative technique that can reflect the request for change.