개인정보보호법상 통계작성 및 학술연구, 그리고 비식별화 - 개인정보보호법 제18조 제2항 제4호의 평가 및 입법론적 논의 -

According to the subparagraph 4 of Article 18 (2) for the Personal Informaion Protection Act of the Republic of Korea, the personal information manager may, for compiling statistics, or scientific research purposes, etc. where necessary, use personal informaion for any purpose other than the intended ones or provide a third person with such information, in a form by which a specific individual cannot be identified, unless the interests of a subject of information or a third person are likely to be unduly infringed on. Considering that the Personal Informaion Protection Act, in principle, requires that the information manager collects the consent for the intended purpose from the subject of information, the subparagraph 4 of Article 18 (2) is an exception to the Act. The subparagraph 4 is the only clause that states the prior-consent of the subject of information is not necessary as far as the information manager can guarantee the de-identification of a specific individual. Even though de-identification is an important issue in the personal data protection field, there are few research that dealt exclusively with this clause. Thus, this paper aims to analyze the essence of the subparagraph 4 of Article 18 (2) by investigating each requirement that the subparagraph states. Through the analysis, this paper will discuss the level of the deidentification the subparagraph requires, and explain the reason for the exemption from the prior consent for the statistical compiling or scientific research purposes. In addtion, this paper will point out the problems of the subparagraph 4 of Article 18 (2), and suggest legislative ideas by referring to similar cases of other countries.