A bill is being prepared that allows the use of original video data containing pedestrians' faces or gaze processing for the development of autonomous driving technology.
On the 23rd, the Personal Information Protection Commission announced this at a briefing on 'Personal Information Protection Act and Autonomous Driving.'
Current law stipulates that only information that has been 'pseudonymized' so that individuals cannot be identified can be used for statistical compilation or research. This is a safeguard to protect the rights of data subjects. However, in the autonomous driving field, video data that has undergone pseudonymization such as mosaicking has significantly reduced utility, leading to demands for deregulation.
Generally, autonomous vehicles are equipped with 8 to 10 cameras, collecting various information throughout driving, resulting in a large amount of data. Given the nature of autonomous vehicles that analyze the surrounding environment and drive to the destination without driver intervention, it is essential to quickly recognize pedestrians' gaze and entry direction to ensure safety. However, the industry has pointed out that the utility significantly decreases if the faces of individuals in the secured videos are pseudonymized.
The Personal Information Protection Commission allows experimental exceptions to use original data if the safety of data subjects is ensured as a supplement. Currently, four autonomous driving companies?Newbility, Woowa Brothers, FortyTwoDot, and Kakao Mobility?are participating in the experimental exceptions.
Ko Nak-jun, Director of the New Technology Personal Information Division at the Personal Information Protection Commission, explained, "Experimental exceptions have the limitation of being 'temporary permits,'" adding, "We will also promote legislation to supplement this." Regarding concerns that personal information may be collected without pseudonymization, he added that safety measures will be put in place.
Additionally, there is a plan to notify pedestrians that an autonomous vehicle has passed by using lights or sounds and to attach contact information to the equipment so that deletion requests can be made.
Furthermore, safety measures will be established to prevent the use of data collected for purposes other than AI learning. Director Ko stated, "Foreign autonomous driving companies such as Tesla must establish personal information processing policies that comply with domestic personal information protection laws, just like domestic companies," and added, "We will hold a meeting between the Ministry of Science and ICT and the autonomous driving industry next week to gather field opinions."
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