The National Level of Emergency and Privacy Rights in South Korea

To fight COVID-19, which became a global pandemic in 2020, many countries enforced different measures. South Korea conducted mass collection and usage of personal information through modern technologies instead of drastic restriction measures. While the containment of COVID-19 by South Korea was successful as of 10
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August 2020, some concerns regarding privacy and personal data protection also exist. This paper first looks at personal data protection legislation in South Korea in normality before COVID-19, then, also looks at the measures taken by the South Korean government to counteract COVID-19 with its legal basis, and to analyse the change of privacy mindsets in the South Korean government and population. At last, this paper clarifies three concerns that arose from the measures taken by the South Korean government to counteract COVID-19.