Securing Insurance Agency Customers
Misunderstanding of Consent for Personal Data Collection and Marketing Use
[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Choi Soon-cheol (alias, 36), who was about to purchase car insurance, was completely deceived after using an insurance premium comparison site he found through a portal site. The service required mandatory personal information such as name, date of birth, and mobile phone number, which he provided, and that became the root of the problem. Since then, he has received dozens of calls a day urging him to sign up for insurance.
Choi said, "I used a car insurance comparison site that is easily found on the portal, but I feel like I became a 'hogang' (a combination of 'hogoo' meaning sucker and 'customer')," and added, "They advertise that insurance experts will honestly inform you, but isn't the real purpose to obtain my personal information?" expressing his frustration.
As the number of insurance comparison sites that promote the ability to compare various insurance products' premiums at a glance and provide personalized quotes has surged, consumer complaints have intensified. Some sites require personal information to provide premium quotes or force users to agree to marketing use. Experts warn that personal information collected through comparison sites may be used for insurance sales and advise caution.
According to the insurance industry on the 7th, searching for 'insurance premium' or 'insurance comparison' on portal sites currently yields hundreds of comparison sites alongside insurance company websites. Most of these are operated by General Agencies (GA).
Currently, services are provided through the 'Insurance Product Comparison Disclosure' service operated by the Life and Non-life Insurance Associations or the Insurance Damoa site, but since there are set criteria for enrollment, there are limitations in personalized searches. In response, GAs are flooding the market with comparison sites aimed at providing insurance information and acquiring customers.
They market that they provide quotes along with information on insurance products sensitive to premiums, such as car insurance or actual expense insurance. However, the collected personal information is being used for the personal sales activities of GAs or insurance brokers.
A representative from a major non-life insurance company explained, "For GAs to increase insurance contracts, it entirely depends on how much consumer database (DB) they can secure," adding, "They use a strategy to obtain personal information through insurance comparison sites that consumers visit voluntarily."
It is also problematic that it is difficult to distinguish these services from comparison and analysis services provided by InsurTech companies in a saturated insurance market. InsurTech startup Bomap started a personalized insurance coverage analysis service in May. Insurance Doctor also offers a service that checks whether insurance products suit users.
The financial authorities state that they cannot forcibly crack down on insurance comparison sites. According to the 'Personal Information Protection Act,' collecting and using personal information with the consent of consumers (data subjects) is not legally problematic.
An insurance industry official said, "Except for cases of launching new products and acquiring new subscribers, insurance remodeling services inevitably increase to induce additional subscriptions," adding, "However, there needs to be a mechanism to prevent personal information used for insurance diagnosis or comparison from being utilized for sales or marketing."
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