[Personal Information] Is Receiving Former Employee Workplace Information from Employees Legal?
Article posted in 2025-04-02 09:23:19 | VEAT
Law firm Veat recently provided detailed legal advice regarding a query from a company (hereinafter referred to as the "client company") operating robot automation systems, concerning whether the provision of information about an employee’s previous workplace to their current employer constitutes a violation of the Personal Information Protection Act.
What is Personal Information?
The Personal Information Protection Act consists of provisions to protect the personal information of information subjects. In this context, personal information means information relating to a living individual, encompassing any of the following (Article 1, Paragraph 1, Clause 1 of the Personal Information Protection Act):
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① Information that allows an individual to be identified through name, resident registration number, and images, etc. ② Information that, even if it cannot identify a specific individual on its own, can be easily combined with other information to identify them (In this case, whether it can be easily combined should be reasonably considered, taking into account the availability of other information, the time, cost, and technology required to identify the individual). ③ Information that is pseudonymized, such that it is impossible to identify a specific individual without the use or combination of additional information to restore it to its original state. |
Therefore, if an employee’s previous workplace information falls under any of the above types of information, it is considered personal information protected by the Personal Information Protection Act, and it is necessary to be careful not to violate related regulations.
Should you accept information about an employee’s previous workplace?
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"Personal Information Protection Act" Article 71 (Punishment)The following persons shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than 5 years or a fine of not more than 50 million won. 1. A person who provides personal information to a third party without obtaining the consent of the information subject in violation of Article 17, Paragraph 1, Clause 2, even though they do not fall under Article 17, Paragraph 1, Clause 2 (including cases where it is applied by virtue of Article 26, Paragraph 8) and a person who knows about it and receives the personal information. |
Article 71, Paragraph 1, Clause 1 of the Personal Information Protection Act stipulates that a person who provides personal information to a third party without obtaining the consent of the information subject in violation of Article 17, Paragraph 1, Clause 1, even if they do not fall under Article 17, Paragraph 1, Clause 2, and a person who knows about it and receives the personal information shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than 5 years or a fine of not more than 50 million won.
Therefore, if the information about an employee’s previous workplace that was received constitutes personal information, the consent of the information subject, i.e., the employee, was not obtained for providing it to the current workplace, and the current workplace was aware of it, then it may be subject to criminal punishment under Article 71, Paragraph 1, Clause 1 of the Personal Information Protection Act.
Law firm Veat has provided advice based on specific cases, considering the above points, to ascertain whether the client company violates the Personal Information Protection Act when receiving information about a specific employee’s previous workplace.
Comply with the Personal Information Protection Act, together with Law firm Veat
It is natural to want to collect various pieces of information about employees in order to secure and verify talent. However, as outlined above, there is a possibility that the information exchanged in practice may include personal information protected by the Personal Information Protection Act.
We recommend that you have a legal review from a legal professional to determine which information constitutes personal information and what procedures must be followed to provide such personal information to a third party.
Law firm Veat provides customized legal advice to various companies to comply with the obligations stipulated in the Personal Information Protection Act. Therefore, if you have any concerns about whether the Personal Information Protection Act has been violated or what improvements are needed to comply with the Act, please feel free to contact Law firm Veat. We at Law firm Veat will be able to provide you with legal advice that is optimized for your specific circumstances.
This case study can also be found on the Law firm Veat blog below.
- [Personal Information] Is it lawful to receive an employee's past workplace information?
Thank you.
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