It Took 13 Days Just to Remove Victims’ Personal Data, Leaving the Government Waiting on Google

It took 13 days for South Korean authorities to confirm the exposure of digital sex crime victims’ personal information and get it removed from an external website. During that time, officials repeatedly appealed to Google, effectively leaving the government waiting for the technology company to act.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family first learned of the exposure on the 25th of the previous month, after the Hankyoreh identified a site operated by a Harvard Law School-affiliated research project and alerted relevant agencies. The site, referred to by the newspaper as L, displayed victims’ names, schools, student numbers, workplaces and other sensitive details, along with the deletion requests submitted through Google.

The ministry initially asked Google and L to remove 47 posts containing victims’ information. The Korea Communications Standards Commission also reviewed the posts on the 28th, saying the information fell under protections in South Korea’s sexual violence law. It asked Google and L to remove all posts revealing related search terms. But the information remained online until the early hours of August 31, six days after the authorities began responding. It was finally deleted the following day. More exposed posts later surfaced, requiring reporters to locate them manually and send immediate deletion requests to officials.

The commission’s legal authority to block illegal online pages proved ineffective because its current technology cannot penetrate HTTPS or encrypted sites. The article also criticizes the authorities’ treatment of streamer victims. The commission initially excluded posts involving streamers because the original live broadcasts had been made with the subjects’ consent. That reasoning did not address the victims’ lack of consent to later recordings or redistribution. Only after repeated complaints from reporters did the ministry and commission ask Google to remove those posts as well.