ABSTRACT
In late 2011, the Korean National Tax Service tried to investigate the income of a few thousand bloggers to determine whether there was any tax evasion. The tax agency asked Web portals to hand over bloggers’ personal information. The attempt met with a backlash from millions of bloggers. Bloggers claimed that the tax agency viewed all bloggers as potential tax evaders without any solid evidence. Since turning over personal information might constitute a breach of confidentiality and privacy policies, the Web portals asked the Ministry of Justice for a ruling on whether the tax agency's request conflicted with the privacy protection law ( Cho 2011). The national tax agency downsized the investigation from a few thousand to a few hundred bloggers and completed it quickly due to strong opposition by bloggers and Internet users.
