After the government began piloting facial authentication along with identity verification in the mobile phone activation process on the 23rd, about 45,000 people agreed to a petition opposing it. The Ministry of Science and ICT held an emergency briefing on the 24th after issuing a press release and explanatory materials to quell the backlash. Still, opposition to a one-way mandatory system without public debate or choice appears to be growing.
The Ministry of Science and ICT first released the system in an official press release on the 19th. Ahead of implementation, a petition opposing it was posted on the 18th. The petitioner said, "The government should not force the provision of irreversible biometric information as a condition for people's everyday communication use," and added, "Stop the push to mandate biometric authentication and define it as an option." The point is to first introduce authentication methods that can replace biometric information and to conduct sufficient public debate and impact assessments for the entire population.
At 2:42 p.m. on the 23rd, the Ministry of Science and ICT distributed explanatory materials on the matter. Even so, the situation did not improve, because the same explanations were repeated. The facial authentication system is provided through the PASS app operated by the three mobile carriers. After a three-month pilot, it will be formally introduced on Mar. 23 next year. The core of the ministry's explanation is that facial authentication technology compares in real time the face photo on the ID presented by the user with the actual face of the ID holder to determine whether they are the same person, and, if confirmed, only the result value is stored and managed, and biometric information used for authentication is not separately kept or stored. For that reason, it is relatively safe for preventing burner phones or voice phishing, the ministry said. However, there was no mention of the public debate process, the possibility of granting choice, or phased introduction, which are what people are curious about.
As public sentiment worsened, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced at 8:40 p.m. on the 23rd that it would hold a "briefing on facial authentication when activating mobile phones" the next day. However, in the briefing on the 24th, it said, "We are well aware that people are anxious due to the mobile carriers' successive hacking incidents this year," while offering only the repeated explanation that "biometric information is deleted immediately upon verification of identity, without any process of being separately kept or stored."
At the briefing, questions poured in such as, "Even if it delays the timing a bit, why not prepare the system more thoroughly?" and "Even China, which first introduced facial authentication, recently stepped back from mandating it—aren't the authorities excessively forcing facial authentication?"
Choi Woo-hyeok, Director General for Network Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "There are aspects where we have to consider various things regarding the timing of policy implementation, but the biggest public interest we see is that victims of voice phishing are surging, so the emphasis is not on rushing but on the need for a policy that can quickly address this," adding, "This is also part of the current administration's national agenda." He continued, "As a methodology to push for speedy execution to eradicate voice phishing, adopting what is technically sound as soon as possible is what reduces harm to the public," and said, "We will raise the system's completeness and recognition rate going forward."
Regarding overseas cases, Deputy Minister Choi said, "In China, as far as we have confirmed, it seems they stopped because issues arose from storing biometric information," and added, "Several countries are introducing the use of biometric-related information in various ways."
As of 3 p.m. on the 24th, the "Petition opposing the policy to mandate facial recognition" on the National Assembly e-petition site had 44,171 supporters. An internet user said, "With the mobile carriers' hacking incidents and Coupang's data breach making it hard to trust any security system, I don't know why the facial authentication system for mobile phone activation needs to be introduced so urgently," adding, "PASS was one of the vectors through which damage occurred during the KT hacking incident, and I don't want to use it."
Lee Dong-hoon, a distinguished professor at the Graduate School of Information Security at Korea University, said, "There are three months between the pilot introduction of the facial authentication procedure and the full introduction, so the government needs to go through a public debate process and review other methods," adding, "In security, user consent and convenience matter more than the technology itself."