'가명정보에 관한 재산상 권리’ 인정에 대한 고찰

Abstract

As the Personal Information Protection Act was amended on February 4, 2020, the legal basis for the use of pseudonymous data has been established, which increases the possibility that pseudonymous data will be freely utilized in diverse industries and markets. However, there are still insufficient discussions on how to deal with the right to ‘pseudonymous data’. Now that the special cases concerning pseudonymous data are newly established, it is a question whether the discussions on ‘the rights regarding personal information’ as of today could still have valid meaning, and whether ‘the rights to the pseudonymous data’ can be separately considered with ‘the rights regarding personal information’. In particular, whether ‘pseudonymous data’ is recognized as property or whether ‘rights related to pseudonymous data’ are recognized as property rights is not yet cleared up. Furthermore, if ‘the right on pseudonymous data’ is recognized, it can also be an issue whether the right will belong to the data subject or the personal information controller. On the other hand, the legal principle of intellectual property rights (copyright law) is similar to that of dealing with the right to pseudonymous data, so it is necessary to refer to the legal principle of intellectual property rights from a legislative theory perspective. Specifically, it is expected that compilation works and the rights of producer of database under the current Copyright Act and the fair use of works can be useful examples when we seek a balance point between use and protection of personal information. Also, the method of imposing data tax is a subject that should be considered in relation to the use of pseudonymous data. Accordingly, this paper reviewed various issues related to the nature of ‘pseudonymous data’ as property, and the requirement for recognition of ‘pseudonymous data’ as a property right, measures to protect the right thereof properly, and the attribution of the right.