Major Portal Sites to Stop Collecting National ID Numbers
Major Portal sites such as Naver and Daum are to stop collecting national identification numbers from next year when users sign up for services. The decision has come after privacy concerns that have been escalating due to a spate of incidents in which users’ personal information was leaked by major internet sites. Both Naver and Daum have announced that they will not collect users’ national identification numbers until the end of next year. Daum also plans to gradually remove all numbers that are currently registered in its database. In the future, users may instead have to confirm their identity by other means such as cellphone, credit card or I-pin. According to Yonhap news, portal Nate stopped receiving identification numbers in July last year after the personal data of 35 million users was leaked by operator SK Communications.
You can read more information about the real-name system at Nanoomi blogs, Popular Gusts and Footman’s Frothings.
Kakao Talk More Popular than Texting
According to an article by Chosun Business released yesterday, phone users send 1.3 times more messages with Kakao Talk than by general text messages. Kakao Talk continues to grow and in a survey of Android users that was carried out by online market research company Rankey, Kakao Talk was accessed an average of 143.8 times during one week. Earlier this year users were upset after the company changed their data collection policies. Nevertheless the real-time messenger now has approximately 25,000,000 users globally and is available in Korean, English, Japanese and many other languages.
The Shutdown Law – One Month Later
The controversial gaming “shutdown law” has now been in place for just over one month. The policy is a new measure which came into effect on the 20th of November to help curb online game addiction, a major problem among teens and children in South Korea. The law is supposed to prevent gamers under the age of 16 from connecting to game servers between midnight and 6am but many say it has had little affect. According to a recent Yonhap article, many students are calling the policy a failure and have simply been using their parents identification numbers to play games past midnight. Another major weak point of the law is that Korea’s most popular game Starcraft is still able to be played without restriction. Others are also protesting the principle of the law, claiming that it has removed a way for students to rest once they get home from studying at academies.
Nanoomi blogger Niels Footman blogged about the law before it came into place earlier this year.
