Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
SoCar in hot seat for refusing to give sex offender's information to police
A sign indicates a designated parking space for vehicles owned by SoCar, a car-sharing service provider. Korea Times file
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
SoCar, a car-sharing app operator, is facing public backlash over its initial refusal to provide the police with the information of a user who was suspected of kidnapping an elementary schoolgirl, citing the “law on personal information protection.”
In response, the girl's mother filed an online petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website, calling for a revision of the law.
According to the petition and media reports, Monday, the man in his 30s, who rented a car from SoCar on Feb. 6, picked up the 13-year-old girl from Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, after they met through an online chat room.
The man allegedly took her to his house in Gyeonggi Province and raped her. He released the girl the next day and she returned home.
The mother said she reported the girl missing to the police at 11:20 a.m. on the day she was taken. Police were able to connect the abduction to the driver of the rental car. When the police requested SoCar to provide GPS information and other details on the user, the company refused to cooperate without a search warrant, citing its obligation to protect private information.
“I called the SoCar call center eight times over two days. I cried and begged, and asked them to hand the man's information to the police if they're not allowed to tell me. But they kept saying they were unable to hand over the information due to the relevant law,” she said.
The search warrant was issued on Feb. 7, after the missing girl had returned, but it took an additional day for the police to obtain the information of the perpetrator, as SoCar said the employee in charge of information management was off for the day.
The mother said the girl was able to return safely but the sexual assault could have been prevented if the company had provided the information when the police first requested it.
“Does it make sense to refuse to provide information according to the personal information protection law, when you're able to prevent a crime before it has been committed?” the petitioner said. “For whom does this law exist? I think it should be revised in a rational way.”
As public criticism was building over the incident, SoCar CEO Park Jae-wook made a public apology, Feb. 10, for failing to promptly cooperate with the police investigation due to the personal information protection manual. Park said the company will change the manual after consulting with experts so that it can cooperate with law enforcement authorities if a crime has been committed.