전자상거래법의 온라인 플랫폼상 프로파일링 광고 규제에 관한 소고 —알고리즘기반 광고규제 조항의 비교법적 분석을 중심으로—

Abstract

It is no exaggeration to say that we are currently living in the platform era as 7 of the top 10 companies in the world’s market capitalization are doing platform business today. The core of the platform business is the Network Effect. As more users’ data is accumulated, not only the users’ profits but also the value and market power of the platform business will grow proportionally. GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) has also grown into a large-scale online platform in this way. Furthermore, due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the use of non-face-to-face services has significantly increased our dependence on online platforms in our daily lives. In addition to GAFA, many online platform companies such as ‘Netflix’, which recently secured a large number of users in Korea, and ‘Naver’, which is expanding into various businesses such as search engine services, online shopping, and payment support, are constantly accumulating data. As data is repeatedly created as new data through each company's algorithm system, platform companies are forming transnational market dominance and influence. However, the problem is that, as the retention of data in the platform ecosystem is a very important factor for business success, the protection of consumer personal information is also important, so the two conflicting interests of the use and protection of personal information collide. In other words, when the platform collects and processes the information of platform participants through the algorithm, there is a problem of privacy and personal information infringement. Big data and algorithms are specifically linked to the regulation of algorithm-based targeted advertising. Therefore, the regulation for customized advertisements is important because it determines the legal restrictions on the use of the platform’s algorithm and the direction of the legal system for personal information protection in the platform ecosystem. Foreign regulations on customized advertising can be largely divided into American and European types. While the United States regulates more emphasis on self-regulatory systems rather than on government intervention, while Europe focuses on government intervention and government regulation to protect personal information. In Korea, discussions began with the Korea Communications Commission’s online customized advertising guidelines in 2017 and recently customized advertisements are regulated through Articles 16 and 18 of the Bill of Act on Consumer Protection in the Electronic Commerce Transactions, Etc (hereinafter referred to as the Electronic Commerce Act) was embodied. However, the amendment directly violates the rules of the Personal Information Protection Act regarding the e-commerce between individuals under Article 29, while it is facing various criticism as a whole, which is an obstacle in the legislative process regulating customized advertisements in Korea. Based on a comparative study of the foreign legislation on algorithm-based customized advertising, which is the core of this discussion, and it is necessary to examine the direction of regulations on customized advertisements in Korea based on the revision of the E-commerce Act, which is currently proposed.