탐정의 위법행위 방지를 위한 개선방안 연구

Abstract

It has been possible for a person who investigates accidents or gathers information to use the term such as ‘private detect’ or ‘private investigator’ since the revision of the article 40 of 「the Credit Information Use And Protection」(hereinafter the Act) in 2020. As the Act does not prohibit private detectives from finding out a certain person’s whereabouts or investigating his or her private life while the bill on the business of private detective being postponed, it has been alleged that private detectives frequently violate people’s privacy when they carry out their own business without proper rules with which to supervise those professionals. This article reviewed on the possible illegality of the private detectives, such as privacy invasion, infringement on the right to information in the process of background check, and staking crimes. To obtain insights on the measures to deter those illegal activities by private detectives, this paper did comparative legal research on regulation and cases regarding private detectives in the U. S. The research found that some states’ statutes strictly regulate illegal or unethical activities of private detectives by providing causes for disciplinary actions when they do fraudulent or dishonest business acts and excluding evidence obtained from the illegal or unethical acts. Furthermore, the Federal and California statutes clearly prescribe that employers who perform background check through the third agency should acquire prior approval from applicants, that provide the applicants with a copy of investigative consumer report, and that give the applicants an opportunity to review and correct the report. Based on the research, this paper suggests that the bill of private detectives, the passage of which is being delayed, needs to include a disciplinary provision for private detectives doing fraud or dishonest activities.