Report 2467

It has been confirmed that the government has handed over 170 million domestic and foreign face photos to private companies for the purpose of developing artificial intelligence (AI) to be used in immigration screening. Face, which is biometric information, is 'sensitive information' that has strict processing regulations among personal information. Since the government provided this information to the private sector without the consent of the parties, controversy is expected. Furthermore, the government is accumulating additional biometric information by installing hundreds of cameras in the arrivals hall of Incheon International Airport. It is evaluated that the government has made an irrational number to foster the artificial intelligence industry.

Handing over 100 million facial information to the private sector

Looking at the data received by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Ju-min from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 20th, the two ministries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in April 2019 and are aiming to complete the project by 2022. is in progress This is a project in which the Ministry of Justice transfers information such as △facial image △nationality △gender △age of Koreans and foreigners obtained during the immigration process to the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Science and Technology transfers it to private companies to research artificial intelligence technology. It was put forward for the purpose of advancing immigration screening, such as identification of immigrants without passport scans and detection of dangerous situations in advance. [Press release](https://www.moef.go.kr/nw/nes/detailNesDtaView.do?searchBbsId1=MOSFBBS_000000000028&searchNttId1= MOSF_000000000028543&menuNo=4010100) mentioned the project, but this is the first time that the detailed project structure, such as the scope and method of data collection and the developer, has been confirmed.

As a result of this project, among the facial data that private companies received from the Ministry of Justice last year, there were about 120 million foreigner information. The companies used 100 million of these for 'AI learning' and 20 million for 'algorithm verification'. As of 2018, the Ministry of Justice has a total of more than 200 million face photos of 90 million foreigners, and more than half of them have been used for learning. Face photos of Korean immigrants were also used for 'artificial intelligence learning'. In a document sent to Congressman Park Joo-min, the Ministry of Justice said, "We used about 57.6 million (Koreans) facial data for the artificial intelligence identification tracking system project." Under the current Immigration Control Act, the Ministry of Justice does not collect and store biometric information such as faces of Koreans during immigration screening, but it does save fingerprints and facial photos of Koreans who applied for automatic immigration screening introduced in 2008. The Ministry of Justice says that it transferred information such as face photos and gender and age of Koreans obtained at this time to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Smart AI-Algorithm Development Purpose

It was also confirmed that starting this year, 'videos' of Koreans and foreigners passing through Incheon International Airport's immigration are also being collected under the pretext of obtaining 'real data'. This means that the amount of facial image information passed on to private companies may increase further in the future. Last year alone, the Ministry of Justice installed a total of 88 cameras around the immigration checkpoint at Incheon International Airport, including 50 fixed cameras for facial recognition, 26 4-sided omnidirectional cameras, and 12 rotatable cameras. A business proposal prepared by the Information and Communications Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) under the Ministry of Science and Technology in June this year also included a plan to install more than 100 cameras in the immigration screening room and glass booths at the screening counter. The government's plan is to secure on-site data with a total of 400 cameras, 100 units per year, during the project period from 2019 to 2022. We are developing a one-to-many matching algorithm. It learns to find out who it is by comparing it with existing registration data, even those who show 'abnormal behavior' at the arrival hall. It is a more complicated form than '1 to 1' matching, which verifies whether the person in front of the camera is the same as the person in the passport photo, as in the current automatic immigration inspection. The National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), which wrote the business proposal, "tracked (tracked) and photographed the faces of entrants" and compared "the photos taken on the closed circuit television (CCTV) with the photos in the existing database (DB) (in the photo) We check to see if the person is a registered immigrant, and search the database until we find the same person as the picture taken."

"Information human rights violations on an unprecedented scale"

Facial images are 'sensitive information' that can be used to specify an individual's identity among personal information. The Personal Information Protection Act defines sensitive information as 'information about an individual's physical, physiological, and behavioral characteristics, which is generated for the purpose of identifying a specific person'. In order to provide or process sensitive information to a third party, 'separate consent' must be obtained from the data subject. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Science and Technology have written this information without the consent of the 'original owner'. In a document sent to Congressman Park Ju-min's office, the Ministry of Justice said, "After careful review, including receiving legal advice from a law firm, we determined that this project falls within the scope of the information collection purpose of immigration screening." Criticism comes from civic groups and others, calling it "infringement of information human rights on an unprecedented scale." Jang Yeo-kyung, executive director of the Institute for Information and Human Rights, said, "It is hard to find a case internationally where the actual data of immigrants and foreigners was used for artificial intelligence development without notice or consent and applied to a company. It is a shocking incident." Rep. Jumin Park said, “Although the artificial intelligence identification and tracking system may help facilitate immigration and maintain safety at the airport, it is difficult to understand that this project was carried out without the consent of the parties and without any special ground rules while dealing with personal sensitive information. If it is a business, the legality should be reviewed immediately.”