빅데이터 환경과 개인정보의 보호방안－정보주체의 관점에서 바라본 비판적 검토를 중심으로－

It was only a few years ago that we accepted the title, Digital Revolution. The internet access through personal computers and laptops, emails, and distribution of new contents such as digital images and MP3 sound sources brought about an enormous change in our lives. On the other hand, we are facing a new phase again. The earlier environment of digital revolution centering around devices and media gradually develops into a new form that works based on this network as the universal foundation. Such an aspect reveals the start of a new ICT environment as well as new social issues. For example, the most recent example is the popularity of big data. It will be reasonable to state that the global internet industry concentrates on the new ICT environment where a large amount of data mass-produced from human digital activities are newly processed and commercialized. In line with the start of this big data environment, currently, there are large-scale discourses to revise the personal data protection policies. This means that the necessity to revise the current Personal Data Protection Act was maintained and the proactive criticism of major principles of the laws became available. This paper started with a question as to the feasibility of these discussions. It is because there are perspectives other than incitement on new possibilities of the big data environment. It is also necessary to attentively observe the international movement where negative impacts of the big data environment or enormous backlashes often referred to as ‘infringement on network privacy’ or ‘social hacking of personal data’ become subject to public opinions. This paper will provide a review of discourses pertaining to revision of the laws related to personal data protection from a critical perspective based on the understanding. This paper aims to provide a brief overview of the big data environment, sum up new legal issues arising from big data, and critically analyze new discourses trying to respond by overall revision of the laws related to personal data protection. Especially, from the perspective of data principals under the big data environment, the focus will be laid on the verification of specific feasibility in discussions pertaining to ‘re-organization of the concepts of personal data’ and ‘re-constitution of rights to consent’.