By Yoon Ja-young
Subscribing to websites will get easier from September as people won’t have to input their resident registration number in the process. Meanwhile measures are being taken to better protect personal information.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced a revision of the private information protection act to the effect Monday to begin at the end of September.
According to the revision, websites where the number of daily visitors surpasses 10,000 users, those subscribers should be able to do so without giving their resident registration numbers. Websites of public institutions, such as the government and government-run enterprises and organizations, plus schools, will be subject to the revision, regardless of the number of daily visitors.
Currently, most websites require either a resident registration number or foreigner registration number to subscribe to the website. The requirement, however, makes the information of subscribers vulnerable to possible leaks. The recent hacking of a number of popular websites such as Auction and Hyundai Capital resulted in the resident registration numbers of millions of people being compromised. Criminals can use resident registration numbers to gain more private information about the individuals.
As the vulnerability of resident registration numbers has become a serious issue here, Google Korea recently launched a system which detects the exposure of the numbers at websites and automatically sends messages to the webmaster to delete the numbers. When the webmaster deletes or corrects the webpage that contains the numbers, Google’s search robot also deletes it in the search list.
According to the revision, the ministry will also set up a committee to protect private information. Sensitive information, such as individual’s genetic information or criminal records, and identification information such as resident registration, passport, driver’s license, or foreigner registration numbers, should be encrypted, according to the revision.