KOREA: Google continues to show private data

Resident registration numbers continue to show up in Google search results, says Ministry of Information and Communication

Korea Times
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

By Kim Tae-gyu

Google, the world's foremost Internet search engine, continues to reveal sensitive data on Korean people despite the nation's requests for a change.

The Ministry of Information and Communication yesterday said the U.S.-based Google keeps showing resident registration numbers, the rough equivalent of social security numbers, in search results.

"Local portal sites like Naver and Daum automatically filter resident registration numbers but Google can't do so," said Oh Jin-ho, director at the ministry.

"So we plan to comb through Google's Korean-language search sites every other month this year to find out resident numbers open to the public," Oh said.

The resident registration number, composed of 13 digits, contains a lot of personal information including birth date, gender, first registration region and registration order.

The leakage and illegal use of the information-packed citizenship numbers have generated concerns that it makes identity theft easy. Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the digital age.

Last July, the Ministry of Information and Communication detected more than 95,000 resident registration numbers via Google search services.

The figures dropped to 13,000 in September and 10,000 in November but Oh said that is still high.

"The problem is that Google cannot automatically block resident registration numbers because the firm has globally identical search architectures. Google cannot change it unlike Korean firms," Oh said.

"In this climate, the best way to prevent resident number-related identity theft is to pinpoint their whereabouts and require Google to delete them," Oh said.

When contacted, Google Korea said the company takes private information problems very seriously.

"It is important for portal sites to make efforts for the protection of private data. With such a mindset, we sincerely cooperate with the government," Google spokesperson Lois Kim said.

"But at the same time, Korean Internet site operators need to pay attention to security so that private data is not open to search engines. They can do so easily but they don't for some reasons," Kim said.

Date Posted: 3/6/2007