South Korea's Gender Equality Ministry Considers Legal Action Against Google Over Data Leak

South Korea's Gender Equality and Family Ministry said on Wednesday that it is considering filing a complaint against Google over allegations that the company leaked personal information of victims of digital sex crimes. According to Sina Finance, the information had previously been exposed on a website for an overseas research project that worked with Google, and was removed only after the ministry and the Korea Communications Standards Commission requested deletion. The leaked information came from victims who had applied to have illegal hidden-camera videos taken down. Google has apologized to the victims, saying it does not, in principle, provide victims' personal information to the website and that it immediately asked the site operator to delete the information after learning of the incident. The ministry said it is reviewing the legal charges that could apply in the complaint, and that either the ministry itself or its affiliated Korean Women's Human Rights Institute will serve as the complainant.