Starting on the 24th, South Korea's new policy requiring mandatory facial recognition for activating mobile phones is set to be fully implemented, provoking significant backlash from civic groups concerned about privacy violations. Various civil society organizations, including Participatory Justice and the Digital Justice Network, held a press conference in front of the Seoul Government Complex on the 18th to demand the cancellation of this policy, which they argue poses severe risks to personal data protection. In addition, these groups gathered signatures from over 700 citizens to present to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, highlighting widespread dissatisfaction with the government's approach to data security.

The Ministry of Science and ICT originally piloted this facial recognition policy starting December 23 of the previous year, justifying it as a means to prevent crimes such as 'small phone' fraud and voice phishing that could exploit counterfeit identity documents. However, its expansion to all new mobile phone activations, number transfers, and device changes raises alarms among many who believe the government is neglecting the more fundamental issues associated with excessive data collection and security failures. Critics argue that the new policy fails to address the root causes of voice phishing while shifting burdens onto citizens to provide highly sensitive personal information such as facial recognition without any recourse should their data be misused or leaked.

Civic representatives have highlighted the redundancy of the policy, stating that they are dealing with companies that have previously faced large-scale data breaches, which contributes to increasing public mistrust. They assert that the reliance on facial recognition brings unique, long-term risks should that biometric data be compromised. Activists have called for an immediate halt to the mandatory facial recognition policy, insisting it violates constitutional rights and could lead to irreversible consequences for citizens' personal data, thus demanding that the government rethink its data collection strategies and prioritize citizen security over strict regulatory measures.