[Governance] PIDMC in South Korea Initiates Collective Dispute Mediation between Facebook and its Users

[Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro]

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.
Is the mediation over zoom?

Many thanks,

On Tue, 13 Jul 2021, 2:46 am Byoung-il Oh via Governance, <
governance at lists.igcaucus.org> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet is responding to the abuse of personal
> information by Facebook in cooperation with a lawfirm Jihyang which is
> composed of progressive lawyers. Please refer to the press release below
> for more information.
>
> Byoung-il Oh
>
> * * *
>
> PIDMC in South Korea Initiates Collective Dispute Mediation between
> Facebook and its Users
>
> Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee(“PIDMC”) in South Korea
> has announced on July 8th, in an official statement that it made a
> resolution to commence the collective dispute mediation proceedings between
> Facebook Inc. and its users in South Korea. PIDMC publicly announced the
> commencement of the proceedings and following plans to further accept
> applications from any other users who wish to participate in the collective
> dispute mediation. In the coming months, PIDMC is expected to proceed a
> thorough investigation over the complaint, and is likely to provide
> recommendations or propose the mediation as a settlement to the parties
> involved.
>
> After eighty-nine Facebook users in South Korea, represented by Lawfirm
> Jihyang, filed a collective complaint to PIDMC in April 16th, against
> Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland, PIDMC has come to a decision to open
> the case and proceed the mediation procedure. Kim, Il-Hwan (Chairperson of
> PIDMC) chose to take proactive measures against Facebook as public
> awareness arises against malpractices of big-techs on users’ data
> protection and privacy. According to PIDMC’s press release report, this
> case marks as the very first collective dispute mediation case since the
> Personal Information Protection Commission(“PIPC”) was established last
> August, 2020.
>
> The complaint claims that Facebook has been providing personal data to
> third parties without user’s consent, in breach of Personal Information
> Protection Act(“PIPA”). The users also filed a petition for Facebook to
> disclose the details of the personal data sharing practices including the
> scope of the personal data and the list of the third parties that obtained
> the access to such data.
>
> When Facebook accepts a collective dispute mediation award presented by
> the PIDMC, the PIDMC may advise the personal information controller of
> Facebook to prepare and submit a compensation plan for the benefit of the
> non-party data subjects suffered from the same incident.
>
> In previous to the users’ complaint for PIDMC, PIPC – a government agency
> in South Korea on personal information and privacy protection – has fined
> 6.7 billion KRW to Facebook in November, 2020, after an investigation of
> Facebook’s business practices on user’s privacy protection. The
> investigation report of PIPC showed that Facebook has been sharing personal
> data of at least 3.3 million out of its 18 million users in South Korea to
> the operators of third-party apps installed in Facebook to create
> customised advertisements and services. PIPC concluded that the users were
> unaware whether their data were being collected and shared to the third
> parties, confirming that Facebook obtained no legitimate consent of any of
> the users.
>
> As PIDMC has commenced the dispute mediation procedure for Facebook, any
> Facebook users can submit an application to participate in this case until
> July 26th at PIDMC website(www.kopico.go.kr or kopico at korea.kr) or to the
> legal representative, Lawfirm Jihyang(www.jihyangsosong.com).
>
> Lawfirm Jihyang and Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet – a civil advocacy
> group for digital rights (www.jinbo.net) – also seek to file additional
> complaints and other litigation suits against big-tech companies for their
> malpractices on users’ privacy protection and anti-competitive measures.
>
>
>
> Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet, Lawfirm Jihyang
>
> for further information, please contact jihyang at jihyanglaw.com
>
> --
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