Provincial Assembly Member Park Dong-cheol: "Serious Issues in Gyeongnam Office of Education's Collection and Management of Personal Information Consent Related to iTalkTalk"

Issues Raised During On-Site Inspection at the 400th Regular Session Administrative Audit

Park Dong-cheol, Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly Member.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters reporters Song Jong-gu and Lee Se-ryeong] Serious concerns have been raised regarding the collection and management of personal information consent during the process of collecting students' personal data related to the AI education platform, iTalkTalk platform, promoted by the Gyeongnam Office of Education.

During the on-site audit of the Gyeongnam Office of Education administrative affairs held during the 400th regular session of the Gyeongsangnam-do Provincial Council, council member Park Dong-cheol checked the management status of personal information consent forms at middle and high schools in the province by randomly selecting schools and classes. He pointed out that some schools either did not collect any consent forms or managed them negligently.

Council member Park stated, “The school opening day is March 2, but it is suspicious that all the parents' signatures are already collected on that day. Although I mentioned and pointed out the importance of personal information protection during the provincial government inquiry last September, the issue still seems unrecognized.”

The iTalkTalk platform, launched in March, aims to provide customized career education for students by collecting and analyzing their data.

In the 399th extraordinary session provincial government inquiry, council member Park also pointed out, “There are many risks involved in collecting students' personal information and learning data. Managing personal information is extremely important.”

The Office of Education responded, “We have collected all personal information consent forms related to iTalkTalk,” but the on-site audit revealed this was not true.