South Korea

Open Net is aspiring to become not only a legal and legislative advocacy organisation that fights regulations, but also a think tank that inquires into the reasons for these regulations and “thinks aloud” with the Korean public and the world on what can be done to prevent the internet from becoming a “closed” circuit for some people, instead of an “open network”. Open Net aims to pr...

How are APC members improving their communities’ lives with the support of APC subgranting? With South Korea actively responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jinbonet has worked on analysing the country’s epidemic prevention policies and systems, and their effects on human rights and privacy.

APC member organisation Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet, in cooperation with the law firm Jihyang, responded to the abuse of personal information by Facebook by bringing this case to the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee.

This new report jointly published by the Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet and the Institute for Digital Rights summarises digital rights violations during the response to COVID-19 in South Korea.

South Korea succeeded in epidemic prevention because it conducted active inspections based on tracking the whereabouts of confirmed patients. However, it should not be forgotten that behind the scenes is an electronic monitoring system that allows our every move to be tracked at any time.

For the last 20 years, Jinbonet has been a consistent and courageous voice in resisting state regulation of the internet that violates people's rights in Korea.

GenderIT.org interviewed Y. K. (Della) Chang, one of the founders of APC member organisation Jinbonet, who was recently appointed as a Personal Information Protection Commissioner in South Korea.