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Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center
Seoul YMCA statement on Justice Ministry proposed amendment to enforcement decree of Act on Protection of Communication Secrets
The Justice Ministry should scrap the proposed amendment to the Act on the Protection of Communication Secrets which will increase communication service bills while impeding the freedom of communication service subscribers.
On June 28, the Ministry of Justice announced that an amendment is being proposed to the Act on the Protection of Communication Secrets (hereon referred to as the Act). The proposed amendment includes ○ the communication service provider’s obligation to provide facilities and technological assistance for communication restriction (interception), ○ simplified procedures permitting communication fact confirming materials (access to communication logs, etc.) concerning suspects, and ○ the extension of the retention of communication logs concerning suspects. The proposed amendment contradicts the purport of the Act and may possibly be abused by communication service operators, who are likely to raise their service rates. Seoul YMCA, which has struggled to promote the rights of communication service users, would like to pinpoint the following problems while expressing its serious concern about the proposed amendment to the Act. The amendment will most likely provide an excuse for raising communication service rates, while hurting the communication freedom of the service subscribers.
- The proposed amendment will obstruct privacy rights as it imposes a wide range of obligations on communication service providers to cooperate with requests for interception by investigation agencies (Article 21-5, para 1, of the proposed amendment to the Act’s enforcement decree).
The Act was designed to “promote communication freedom by protecting the people’s privacy”. This is in line with the people’s basic rights for communication freedom provided under Article 18 of the Constitution. However, it is expected that considerable confusion will ensue if the currently proposed amendment takes effect as it will oblige the communication service operators to prepare technical equipment for advance interception over quite an inclusive range. According to the amendment, all communication service subscribers will be exposed to interception of their calls from time to time. This means they will also pay for the means for such interception with heavier charges. Most of all, the insertion of such provisions into the proposed enforcement decree, which contradicts the legislative purport of the Act passed by the National Assembly, clearly demonstrates legislative abuse by the administration: the enforcement decree will deviate from the original purpose of the Act.
- It is feared that innocent victims will be made as the procedure is being simplified in the extreme to allow the interception of calls made by suspects.
(Article 21-4 of the Proposed Enforcement Decree)
The Act stipulates that advance permission must be obtained through stringent procedures if access to call log records is required for criminal investigation by law-enforcement authorities. However, the proposed amendment provides a loophole that will virtually make innocent victims of many subscribers as it allows requests for permission to intercept multiple subscribers with just one written request.
- The communication service operators will be required to make unnecessary facility investment, eventually increasing the subscribers’ communication bill.
(Article 21-5, paragraphs 1 and 2, of the Proposed Enforcement Decree)
Through the proposed amendment, the Ministry of Justice intends to require the communication service providers to invest in equipment to allow interception, and to extend the period during which they can retain the subscribers’ call records. It is scarcely understandable that the proposed amendment provides for the mandatory retention period of call records to be extended to 12 months, aside from the fact that such easily given permission to intercept will lead to intrusions on privacy. The extent of the mobile phone service operators’ retention of text messages was already disclosed earlier this year during a case involving cheating in college education aptitude tests, arousing serious public concern about communication privacy. The service operators finally announced that they would immediately delete all text messages upon transmission. Safeguarding communication privacy has become a key social issue. The proposed amendment contradicts current trends as it is designed to extend the retention period of personal communication records through the law amendment. More than anything else, the additional technological investment will be fully shouldered by the service subscribers, while over 37 million mobile phone service subscribers make repeated demands for the communication service rates to be lowered as the subscribers owing to their heavy communication bills. Under such circumstances, it is likely that the mandatory technological investment conceived by the amendment will provide an excuse for communication service operators to raise their service rates or refuse requests for lowering the service rates in the future. In conclusion, the current proposed amendment aims to ensure the relative gain of enhanced crime investigation, which should be offset against the psychological and physical burden the people will have to bear because of the amended law, a measure akin to burning down a house to kill a bug.
Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center strongly urges the government to immediately scrap the current proposed amendment, which it believes will hinder the people’s freedom of communication while increasing their share of communication service bills. The Ministry of Justice will revise the proposed amendment anew to comply with the legislative purport of the Act.
▶ Contact: Kim Hui-kyeong, Secretary (02-725-1400) | 
