3-Line Summary
- CCTV footage of your appearance or your car is personal information belonging to the information subject, so you can request access to it under Article 35 of the Personal Information Protection Act from a personal information processor like the management office.
- The processor must grant access within 10 days of receiving the request, or if they refuse or delay, they must notify you in writing of the reason and how to file an objection. If other people are captured in the footage, the principle is partial access, obscuring the portions of others.
- If they only refuse verbally or there is no response after 10 days, you can report the infringement to the Personal Information Infringement Reporting Center (118, toll-free). It is important to include a preservation request in the access request form because the video retention period is short.
Table of Contents
- The Day 21 Days Remained Until the Retention Period
- The Meaning of “It Can’t Be Shown Because It’s Personal Information”
- Five Things to Write on the Access Request Form
- The Notification That Didn’t Arrive After 10 Days
- The Report Submitted to the Personal Information Infringement Reporting Center
- Six Minutes of Footage Behind the Mosaic
- Things to Check When CCTV Access is Refused
- Contents of Administrative Agent (administrative scrivener) Office Work
1. The Day 21 Days Remained Until the Retention Period
The video retention period stated in the apartment management office’s CCTV operating policy was 30 days. The day the client first sent an email was the 9th day after the accident. The remaining period was 21 days. If they couldn’t view the video by then, the record would be overwritten and disappear.
I am an administrative agent (administrative scrivener) working in Songdo, Incheon. I frequently handle procedures that are unfamiliar in name but close to daily life, such as personal information access requests and infringement reports. This article is the story of one person who was denied access to CCTV footage in the underground parking lot of an apartment complex.
The client was a nurse in her late twenties. She worked three shifts in a university hospital ward and, because public transportation was inconvenient after her night shifts, she bought a small car on installment two years ago. There was still over two years left on the installment payments. One Saturday afternoon, after finishing work, she returned and found a long scratch from the passenger door to the rear wheel. There was no note left.
The estimate from the repair shop was nearly 1.2 million won. If she processed it through her self-vehicle damage insurance, she would have to pay a deductible and it would affect her next year’s insurance premium. If she could find the other vehicle, she could process it through their comprehensive insurance. To do that, she needed to know what time and which car was parked next to hers.
2. The Meaning of “It Can’t Be Shown Because It’s Personal Information”
The day after discovering the accident, the client went to the management office and asked to see the video. The response was brief. “Because other residents’ vehicles and faces are captured, it’s personal information and we can’t show it to you. You need to come with the police.”
The client accepted that response at face value. A week passed without her being able to go to the police station due to her tight work schedule, and in the meantime, she started to feel confused after seeing a post online that said, “You can see your own video.” During her break time between shifts, she organized the accident photos and the words she heard from the management office and sent them in an email.
The management office’s explanation is not entirely incorrect. The license plates of other vehicles and the faces of people in the video are their personal information. However, the video also captures the client’s own vehicle and the client’s appearance. That portion is the client’s personal information, and Article 35, Paragraph 1 of the Personal Information Protection Act stipulates that the information subject can request access to their personal information from a personal information processor. The management entity operating the apartment CCTV is also considered a personal information processor.
Paragraph 4 of the same article stipulates that access can be restricted or refused if it is likely to infringe on the interests of others. However, Article 42, Paragraph 1 of the Enforcement Decree stipulates that if the reasons for refusal only partially correspond to the reasons for restriction, only that portion must be restricted and the rest must be made accessible. The structure is not one where the entire video can be blocked simply because other people are captured.
The problem was separate. It was that the refusal was made only verbally.
3. Five Items Listed on the Access Request Form
Verbal rejections leave no record. There’s nothing to confirm – when the request was made, what was rejected, or the reason for the rejection. So, we decided to start over. We would make a written request for access, and calculate the statutory period from the date the written request arrived at the management office.
I had a video consultation with the client to align with the time before their evening shift the next day. During that meeting, we confirmed the contents to be included in the access request form.
- Period of Access Request: From 7:00 AM after arriving at work on the day of the accident, to 4:00 PM when leaving work. Broadening the scope increases the risk of including information about other people, which would increase the reason for rejection. We narrowed it down to the time the car was stopped on the way to work and the time of departure.
- Camera Location: Pillar number in the underground parking area and the two cameras covering that area.
- Purpose of Access: To confirm the circumstances of damage to the client’s vehicle. The purpose must be clear so that the processor can determine the scope.
- Consent to Partial Access: An expression of consent to view the footage with license plates of other vehicles and faces of other people blurred. This is a sentence that preemptively reduces the reason for rejection that the processor might raise.
- Request for Video Preservation: A request to preserve the footage of the relevant section separately from the retention period.
The last item was the most urgent. If the access procedure takes a long time and the footage is overwritten, the subject of the dispute will disappear altogether. I wrote the preservation request again at the top of the request form, and sent it via both the management office’s official email and registered mail on the same day. Emails leave a record of the time of receipt, and registered mail leaves a record of the delivery date. This was to reduce the possibility of disputes over the benchmark date for the calculation period.
The management office replied via text message two days later, saying, “We have backed up the footage of the relevant section separately.” I felt relieved about the footage disappearing with that message.
4. The Notification That Didn’t Arrive After 10 Days
Article 41, Paragraph 4 of the Enforcement Decree stipulates that the processor must provide access within 10 days. When providing access within 10 days, a access notification containing the personal information to be accessed, the date and time, and the location must be sent (Article 41, Paragraph 5 of the same law). When postponing or rejecting, a notification containing the reason and method of objection must also be sent within 10 days (Article 42, Paragraph 2 of the Enforcement Decree).
Ten days have passed since the registered mail arrived. There has been no contact other than the text message saying it was backed up.
When the client called, the responsible employee said, “It is under discussion by the residents’ representative committee.” They also added that they were worried that approving the release of the footage would lead to complaints from other residents. It would have been a written request received for the first time without a manual. For the management office, postponing the decision may have seemed like the safest option.
However, the law requires even postponements to be done in a prescribed manner. If access is postponed, a legitimate reason must be informed to the information subject (Article 35, Paragraph 3, second sentence), and failure to do so results in a fine under Article 75. Being over 10 days without any notification was a failure to follow this procedure.
At this point, there were two options: urging the management office again, or reporting the infringement to the Personal Information Infringement Reporting Center, a specialized agency designated by the Personal Information Protection Commission.
I recalculated the retention period. Since it was said to be backed up, there was a high probability that the footage itself would remain. Nevertheless, it had already been 22 days since the accident, and finding the other vehicle would become increasingly difficult the longer it took. If I urged them again, another week could pass. I decided to file a report immediately. The reporting center’s process of verifying the facts would cause the management office to reconsider the statutory procedures.
5. Personal Information Infringement Reporting Center Complaint
Article 62, paragraph 1 of the Personal Information Protection Act stipulates that a person whose rights or interests have been infringed upon during the processing of personal information can report this to the Protection Committee, and paragraph 2 of the same article provides for the operation of a personal information infringement reporting center by a designated specialized institution. The telephone number is 118, toll-free, and you can also submit a complaint online.
The complaint was written with dates, not emotions. This is so that the officer reading it can immediately understand the problem.
- Type of Infringement: Delay and lack of notification regarding a request to view personal information.
- Circumstances: Verbal request and verbal refusal (the day after the accident) → Written request for viewing (email and registered mail, specifying the date of delivery) → Reply via text message with a backup of the video → No viewing notification, postponement notification, or rejection notification after 10 days.
- Request Content: Partial viewing of information with the information of other people obscured, and preservation of the video until viewing.
- Attachments: Copy of the viewing request, registered mail delivery confirmation screen, email sending record, screenshot of the backup reply text message, photos of vehicle damage.
There were also details deliberately omitted from the complaint. This concerns descriptions of the tone and attitude of the condominium management office employee. The Reporting Center assesses whether legal procedures were followed, and the officer’s personal attitude is not the subject of that assessment. Such descriptions would only make the other party defensive and would not contribute to the conclusion.
In addition to the complaint, there is also the option of applying for mediation with the Personal Information Dispute Resolution Committee. Mediation is a process where the parties agree on compensation or specific measures, so it takes more time. Since what was needed in this case was viewing the video, not compensation, it was deemed sufficient to file a complaint.
Three days after submitting the complaint, the Reporting Center officer contacted the condominium management office to provide guidance on the processing procedure for the viewing request. On the same day, in the afternoon, the management office sent the first written notification, which was a viewing notification.
6. Six Minutes of Video Behind the Mosaic
The notification stated “partial viewing.” It stated that the license plates of other vehicles and the faces of other people would be obscured, and only the section where the client’s vehicle is visible would be shown. The viewing location was set at the condominium management office, and the time was set for an afternoon on a weekday. We requested that it be scheduled on a day off based on the client’s work schedule, and the management office accepted.
An external company was to be used for the obscuring, and the client was informed that they would bear the cost as reimbursement. Enforcement Decree Article 47, paragraph 1 stipulates that the processing party shall determine the viewing fee within the scope of reimbursement. There is a provision that a fee cannot be charged if the cause of the viewing request is with the processing party (paragraph 2 of the same article), but this case did not apply because the cause was vehicle damage. This was explained to the client in advance, and the client accepted.
The viewed video was six minutes long, from 2:09 PM to 2:15 PM. Only the client’s car and a single cat leisurely passing by the ventilation grate on the flowerbed were clearly visible without obscuring. The client briefly smiled at that scene.
The license plates were obscured, but it was sufficient to confirm. A white, large SUV backed into the adjacent space, attaching itself to the passenger side, and the driver got out after adjusting the vehicle back and forth twice. The time was specified down to the minute.
The next step was taken directly by the client. They reported the physical damage to the vehicle while submitting the time of the accident, the camera location, and the viewing results together. Because the time was specified, it did not take long for the investigative agency to secure the original video. The other driver was identified, and the repair costs were covered by the other party’s comprehensive insurance. The client did not pay any deductible.
It took five weeks from the day the initial email was received to the settlement of the repair costs.
7. Things to Check When a CCTV Viewing Request is Refused
If you are in a similar situation, please check the following in order.
- Check the retention period first. The CCTV guidance sign or operating policy of the management office or store will state the retention period. Many places retain footage for around 30 days, so it may disappear after just a few days.
- Request in writing, not verbally. Specify the period and camera location of the viewing request, and the purpose, and also state that you are willing to obscure the information of other people.
- Include a preservation request. Request that the relevant section be separately preserved during the viewing process, and keep a record of the response.
- Record the date of delivery. Using both email and registered mail will reduce disputes over the start date of the 10-day period.
- If no notification is received after 10 days, file a report. File a report with the Personal Information Protection Complaint Center (118, toll-free) attaching the chronological circumstances and copies.
If the CCTV is operated by a public institution, you can directly request viewing from the institution or request viewing through the Personal Information Protection Committee (Article 35, Paragraph 2). Also, be aware that if you are not captured in the video, it is not eligible for a viewing request. The requirements and deadlines vary depending on the case, so individual verification is necessary.
8. Services Provided by Hwang Yunsang Administrative Agent’s Office
Hwang Yunsang’s administrative agent’s office drafts and submits requests for viewing, correction, deletion, and suspension of processing of personal information. We calculate the statutory period from the date the request is received, and if no notification is received or the reason for refusal is unclear, we organize and submit the report and attachments to the Personal Information Protection Complaint Center in chronological order. For businesses, we also assist with drafting CCTV operating policies, personal information processing policies, and procedures for handling viewing requests.
The personal information processor determines whether or not to grant the viewing request, and the complaint center and the Protection Committee determine whether there has been a violation of the procedure. The core of this work is to ensure that all necessary requests and records are fully documented within the deadlines.
A client who had finished a night shift drove their repaired car to work again. The installment period is still ongoing, but the scratches on the car are now gone.
This has been restructured for understanding purposes and is not related to any specific person or event.
Our administrative agent’s office is located in Songdo, Incheon (Posco Tower Songdo). We handle administrative appeals, permits/applications, foreign entry and immigration (visas and residency), regular administrative management, and documents for personal information viewing requests and infringement reports. If you have been refused a CCTV viewing request in Incheon or Songdo and are considering the next steps, please feel free to send us the responses you received and the dates. If you are curious about similar situations, please feel free to leave an inquiry.