▲Yang Cheong-sam, Director of the Personal Information Investigation and Coordination Bureau, is briefing

Confirmation of violation of prohibition on refusal to provide service in case of insufficient notification or non-consent from third party
Emphasize the need for clear notification of personal information use purposes and detailed consent screen design

Kakao Mobility was subject to corrective action for refusing to provide its existing taxi-calling service on the grounds that it did not provide third-party consent for a self-driving taxi-calling service that had not yet been implemented.

The Personal Information Protection Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Personal Information Protection Commission) held its 2nd general meeting on the 8th and decided to impose a fine of 6 million won and issue a corrective order and improvement recommendation on Kakao Mobility Co., Ltd. for violating the Personal Information Protection Act.

The Personal Information Protection Commission began an investigation into Kakao Mobility Co., Ltd. in November of last year following media reports regarding consent to provide personal information to third parties.

As a result of the investigation, Kakao Mobility Co., Ltd. received additional consent from third parties for the autonomous taxi call service, and the ‘purpose of use of the person receiving personal information’It was confirmed that the company did not clearly inform users of the terms and conditions, made optional consent mandatory, and refused to provide existing taxi calling services if users did not consent.

If we look specifically at the violations committed by Kakao Mobility, Inc., during the process of obtaining consent from third parties for autonomous taxi calling services, the company configured a notification window for third-party consent to appear when selecting the existing taxi calling service, and listed the purpose of using personal information as ‘user identification, boarding management, and overall operation within the service.’

Not only is this likely to be mistaken by users as consent required to use existing taxi-calling services, but if consent is obtained through the notification text, a situation arises where personal information of users of existing taxi-calling services may be provided to third parties without legal issues, regardless of whether or not they use the autonomous taxi-calling service.

This violates Article 17, Paragraph 2 of the Personal Information Protection Act, which requires that the “purpose of use by the recipient of personal information” be clearly notified and consent obtained, as there is a realistic concern that the right to self-determination of the information subject, the user, may be violated.

In addition, if existing users do not agree to additional third-party provision or select 'Do later', the provision of existing taxi call services is refused.

This violates Article 22, Paragraph 5 of the Personal Information Protection Act, which prohibits refusal to provide existing services when consent is not given.

In addition, prior to the launch of the autonomous taxi call service, users were asked to provide consent to third parties in advance.

This was decided as a recommendation for improvement as it is necessary to obtain consent for the provision of personal information to third parties at the time when personal information is actually needed in order to protect the rights of the data subject.

Yang Cheong-sam, Director of the Personal Information Investigation and Coordination Bureau, said, “Personal information processorsIn cases where consent is received for the collection, use, and provision of personal information in order to introduce new services or improve existing services, it is necessary to clearly and easily inform the data subject of the purpose of using personal information and carefully design the consent screen,” he emphasized, adding, “In particular, please be careful not to refuse to provide services for the reason that users do not consent to optional consent items when using the service.”