Kim Tong-hyung reports:
The South Korean government in years past has been repeatedly chided for its ineptitude in protecting the personal information of computer users here. This has opposition lawmakers and civil liberty advocates claiming that people should be entrusting their data to somewhere else.
The idea is to establish an independent body, which may or may not be named the “personal information protection committee,” and have it inherit the powers of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to manage private online data.
The backers for an independent privacy agency point to the ministry’s inability to improve the country’s cyber security defense that appears to have more holes than Swiss cheese.
[…]
Predictably, the Ministry of Public Administration balks at the suggestion, claiming that a new independent body would be a waste of effort and money, and thus an unthinkable option for the Lee Myung-bak administration that touts itself as small government.
The debate over an independent privacy agency is in fact what is keeping the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) and opposition lawmakers from agreeing on a new personal Information Protection Law, a draft that has been on the bench for the last two years.
Read more in The Korea Times.