[Parliamentary Audit Spotlight] Lee Joohee Protects 'Sex Crime Victims' by Pressing Google Over Delayed Personal Data Deletion

Victim tips confirm exposure of personal information

Calls for notification of all victims and a report to the National Assembly

Also questions Meta over harmful content for teenagers

Pushes for a 'Korean-style Online Safety Act'

Rep. Lee Juhee of the Democratic Party of Korea drew attention with her intensive questioning at two parliamentary audits into the leak of personal information belonging to victims of digital sex crimes. Citing tips from victims and materials submitted by Google, Lee pointed out inconsistencies in the company’s earlier audit testimony and called for follow-up measures to protect victims.

At a plenary audit of the National Assembly Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee on Oct. 22, Lee questioned Yoon Gu, president of Google Korea, about the company’s response to the personal information leak. It was her second round of questioning, following the audit on Oct. 12.

Rep. Lee Juhee of the Democratic Party of Korea is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily. Photo by Yoon Dongju.

At the time, Yoon said the information had been blocked within 24 hours of the company receiving a report and deleted from its servers within 48 hours. However, according to materials submitted by Google that Lee disclosed, the company received the tip on Aug. 25 and the relevant URLs on Aug. 27, but told Lee’s office that the deletion was completed on Sept. 20.

“The information should have been deleted by Aug. 29 at the latest,” Lee said, adding, “You gave an account at the audit that did not match the facts.” She also disclosed a tip that the victim had searched for her own name on Sept. 15 and 16 and found that three pieces of related information were still appearing.

Lee also criticized Google for failing to notify the victim about the personal information leak. She said the victim had submitted more than 700 requests to Google to remove content over a two-year period beginning in 2021. Lee pointed out that the company had obtained the victim’s email address but had not informed her of the leak.

Lee then called on Google to notify all victims of the leak and report the results to the National Assembly and the Broadcasting and Media Communications Commission. Commission Chairman Kim Jong-cheol also said he would look into the matter.

On the same day, Lee also questioned Meta about content that disparages women and people with disabilities or distorts history being recommended to teenagers. She also raised the need to track over an extended period how platform service design, including recommendation algorithms and infinite scrolling, affects teenagers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.