Expansion as Corporate Insurance Agency Operations Begin
Consent Required for Marketing Use When Collecting Personal Information
Authorities: "Information Collection Is Voluntary... Cannot Enforce Mandatory Crackdown"
DLF Disciplinary Hearing Attendees Awaited by Press (Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Do-hoon = On the 30th, the third disciplinary committee meeting related to the overseas interest rate-linked derivative-linked fund (DLF) incident was held at the Financial Supervisory Service in Yeouido, Seoul, where the press awaited the attendees of the disciplinary hearing.
At this disciplinary hearing, the level of sanctions for Woori Bank and Hana Bank, which sold the DLF, as well as Sohn Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group and CEO of Woori Bank, and Ham Young-joo, Vice Chairman of Hana Financial Group (then CEO of Hana Bank during the DLF sales), is expected to be decided. 2020.1.30
superdoo82@yna.co.kr
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[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 on 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 easy to find 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 their real purpose to obtain my personal information?" expressing his frustration.
As the number of insurance comparison sites promoting the ability to compare various insurance products' premiums at a glance and provide estimates tailored to individuals rapidly increases, consumer complaints are intensifying.
Some sites require personal information to provide premium estimates or force users to agree to marketing use. Experts warn that personal information collected through comparison sites can be used for insurance sales, urging caution.
According to the insurance industry on the 7th, searching for 'insurance premium' or 'insurance comparison' on portal sites currently brings up hundreds of comparison sites alongside insurance company websites. Most of these are operated by corporate insurance agencies (GA).
Currently, services are provided through the 'Insurance Product Comparison Disclosure' service operated by the Life and Non-Life Insurance Associations and the Insurance Damoa site. Financial authorities and insurance associations have been improving the financial product comparison disclosure system to allow consumers to easily summarize and compare key information.
However, these comparison services set insurance subscription criteria to very limited conditions such as 'men in their 40s' or '10-year savings insurance subscription,' making it difficult to perform personalized searches according to individual circumstances.
Taking advantage of this gap, GAs are flooding the market with comparison sites aimed at providing insurance information and acquiring customers.
They market by providing information on insurance products sensitive to premiums, such as car insurance or actual expense insurance, along with estimates. GAs argue that detailed personal information is inevitably required to propose customized insurance. However, the collected personal information is being used for personal sales activities by 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 of acquiring personal information through insurance comparison sites that consumers visit voluntarily."
It is also problematic that it is difficult to distinguish these saturated insurance comparison and analysis services in the insurance market from those provided by insurtech companies (a combination of insurance and technology). Insurtech startup Bomap started offering personalized insurance coverage analysis services in May. Insurance Doctor also provides services that check 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 legally permissible.
An insurance industry official said, "Except for cases of launching new products and acquiring new subscriptions, 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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