빅데이터 시대 개인정보의 형법적 보호

Abstract

Criminal law regulation play an important role in protecting personal information from risks induced by big data. Criminal law guarantees the rights of data subjects, imposes obligations on users of information, and imposes prohibitions and sanctions accordingly. The Personal Information Protection Act targets various personal information included in big data with a focus on the possibility of personal identification. Not only does it require the consent of the data subject in the process of processing big data, but it also protects the right to self-determination of personal information in a series of processes, from creation and collection of personal information to destruction and deletion. The common task of personal information protection legislation is that regulations cannot be set solely in the direction of protecting personal information. The introduction of pseudonymous information in relation to big data to increase the usability of it, while including pseudonymized information as personal information, puts various restrictions in parallel, clearly shows the conflicting position of the personal information protection legislation. Although individual identifiability is recognized as a key mark of personal information, the problem is that the determination of identifiability remains a fairly vague and uncertain area. Even if sensitive or unique personal information has undergone de-identification measures such as encryption, it is controversial if it is incompletely encrypted or if there is a way to return to the original information and it can be re-identified by decryption, etc. If the consent of the data subject is also strictly required at a very high level, the collection and use of big data will inevitably be limited. The more formally required consent or more circumventive exceptions other than consent, the higher the risk of invasion of personal information. Big data is not limited to a fragmentary problem such as personal information leakage, but also entails phenomena directly related to individual freedom and rights, such as human dignity. Efforts should be made to ensure the right to self-determination of information subjects as much as possible along with careful handling of personal information. This paper tried to examine the phenomenon and risks of personal information infringement through big data in detail, and to examine the functions and limitations of the criminal law as a personal information protection measure. Criminal regulations also have a significant stake in dealing with risks to personal information induced by big data. Through the early introduction of criminal law and the expansion of all-round functions of criminal law, society will become safer and citizens will be away from risk, but paradoxically, the burden of increasing the risk of being infringed on or deprived of rights is also borne by the citizen due to the use of the criminal law as a means of priority and preemptive input. Among the various means for protecting personal information, the smaller the role of the criminal law, the better.