Korea's Communication Privacy Law, is it beneficiary for whom?
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The head of Google's South Korean operations blasted the government's recent attempt to limit anonymity on the Web.
``Our business is based on thinking from the user's point of view, and we believe that the real-name requirements do not benefit users in any way and do not contribute to creating a vibrant Internet culture,'' said Lee Won-jin, the managing director of Google Korea in Seoul Wednesday.
``In any country, Google intends to respect the local law and do business within its boundaries. However, since the Internet renders geography irrelevant, it is sometimes difficult to define how far the law of a certain country should extend.
``For services that are not customized or launched particularly for Korean users, we believe it would be better to make our judgments based on moral principles, rather than local law.''
The country has obliged Internet users to make verifiable real-name registrations to post comments on Web sites with more than 100,000 daily visitors since April.
Google, which is reluctant to bend its principles only for Korea and set a precedent that might affect its business in other countries, chose to avoid the requirements by disabling users from uploading videos and comments on the Korean language site of YouTube (kr.youtube.com), its online video service.
However, since the changes are only applied to YouTube's Korean sites, users could easily upload content by setting their country preference to other countries.
This has clearly miffed the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, with KCC chairman Choi See-joong threatening a review of whether Google is violating the local law with its YouTube decision.
Choi's stance, apparently affected by the sentiment within Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), differed from the initial response by lower-ranked KCC officials, who had been saying YouTube's Korean site wouldn't be subject to the real-name requirements if content uploading is blocked.
Lee, who said the company is talking with KCC officials, stressed that Google's decision to limit YouTube's Korean site represents its commitment to abide by local laws. Google had no discussions with KCC officials before making the YouTube decision, because ``we didn't think there was any need to do so,'' Lee said.
``YouTube is subject to Korean law, because we have launched a localized service,'' Lee said.
``I can't talk about what will happen with our future services, but if we are pressed to make another decision about real-name registration, I believe we will have no other option but to repeat what we did with YouTube.''
The Lee Myung-bak government has been looking at more ways to monitor the Internet, after being repeatedly attacked by bloggers, first for its controversial decision to resume U.S. beef imports and more recently for its supposed ineptitude in economic policies.
The latest attempt comes from the efforts by GNP lawmakers to rewrite the communication privacy law and allow authorities further power to observe and track Web browsing habits.
According to the bill, law enforcement authorities get expended surveillance power beyond fixed-line telephone calls and are enabled to intercept mobile phone and Internet communications, which include e-mail, chats and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calls.
Lee revealed that the company received about 10 requests from Korean investigators last year to hand over the e-mail records of some Korean users of Gmail, Google's e-mail services.
However, Google refused to oblige, arguing that Gmail services are based on servers in the U.S. Despite the possible legal changes here, Lee said Gmail wouldn't become anymore vulnerable to surveillance.
``Gmail is not a service developed for Korean users, and a localized version wasn't launched either,'' Lee said.
``As in any country, we will decide our level of cooperation with local investigators following our judgment of the matter at hand, and considering both the Korean law and our principles.''
Google Korea doesn't operate any servers here for its local services, according to company officials, as even the server for its Korean digital map services is operated by a partner company.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
