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Kim Tae-hwan, a Grand National Party lawmaker, said Sunday that Korean wireless providers have been operating location-based services (LBS) such as "buddy finder" services in violation of the Protection of Location Information Act.
The act, was has been effective since Aug. 2005, says that when carriers provide location information to a third party, the carrier must immediately notify those whose information was disclosed. Kim said telecom companies have failed to notify their tracked customers immediately through text messages or phone calls.
Kim, who is involved with the Science, Technology, Information & Telecommunication Committee of the National Assembly, cited a document from the Ministry of Information and Communication titled "Status on Location-Based Services of Mobile Telecommunications Companies".
According to the report, three major mobile carriers provided location information in 180 million cases from August 2005 to June 2006. There were 143 million such cases attributed to SKT, 22.44 million to KTF and 15.05 to LGT.
Kim said the carriers charged W770 (US$1=W937) per case for the service, with a data usage fee of W120 and data call charge of W650. He said that if the carriers provided an estimated 300 million such cases until late last year, they would have saved about W23 billion by not sending W30 text messages to tracked users.
An official from a carrier said his company was not operating illegally. "We disclose location data with prior agreement from those affected the first time the data is sent," the official explained. "We don't send LBS notices after that, but the information is available to those customers anytime, anywhere through their cell phones."
The Act does not specifically call for the provision of such information through text messages, the official said. He said that his company has recently discussed with the government how to interpret the regulation.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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