일반에게 공개된 개인정보의 보호와 활용

Data has been regarded as one of the most essential resources and the use of large amounts of data has been directly linked to economic profit in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, most of the collected data include personal information and its use is thus regulated under current law. The point at issue here is that there is no a substantive enactment which declares how to protect and utilize the publicly available information. Thus it is necessary to discuss it. Based on the idea of informational self-determination, the separate approval of the information subject is unnecessary when (the previously) publicly available information is processed to the extent that it is objectively recognized that the information subject has already consented. The problem here is the range of the consent granted. To solve this problem, it is necessary to classify personal information according to two disclosure types. The first case is the type of active disclosure which means that the information subject actively discloses his/her personal information for the purpose of public disclosure. In this case, the act of information subject itself must be constitutionally protected as the exercise of the right to informational self-determination. However, it doesn’t justify that even personal information actively disclosed by the information subject can be used unlimitedly by a third party. The principle of purpose restriction should still apply in the case. The second case is the type of passive disclosure which implies that information is passively disclosed/exposed by a third party and the information subject connives it. In such a case, it can be considered that the information subject agrees with the data collection, but it is inordinate in many cases to see that he agrees with its use. Therefore, the scope of the agreement should be very narrowly construed.