Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ttompatz]

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/08/23/200608230009.asp


Blacklist invades privacy of foreign teachers



Privacy is defined as a state of being let alone and able to keep certain, especially personal, matters to oneself.

However, the privacy of some allegedly irresponsible foreign English teachers is being outrageously, and possibly illegally invaded on the website of a group called the Korea Foreign Teachers Recruiting Association (www.kftra.co.kr).

The association blacklisted some 20 foreign teachers who they say caused trouble or who were accused of some manner of wrongdoing. The alleged crimes of these individuals included what is described as "doing a midnight run" - leaving suddenly without notice, arriving for class drunk, and even of sexually harassing students. The latter being an extremely serious charge, and one that should not be made lightly or without evidence.

"The website was launched in February because there are many illegal foreigners in Korea that are not qualified to teach English here," said Choi Hyeok, president of the association. "Even though a great number of educational institutes were experiencing similar difficulties, we didn't have a place that can share this information."

Until Thursday of last week the blacklist enabled anyone who had prior access to the private details of a teacher, to list that individual's full name, passport number, birthdate, photo and their alleged crime on the association's website.

After The Korea Herald challenged the operators, the association deleted the passport numbers and birthdates of the teachers.

However, the teacher's names and their alleged crimes are still being published. By law, even the names of suspects in high profile criminal cases are protected until they are indicted by prosecutors.

For example, a legal expert told The Korea Herald, the full names of the French couple who prosecutors have identified as the parents in the now well-known case of the 'freezer babies' were kept private for more than three weeks before their lawyer gave the media permission to release their identities.

Some, or perhaps even all of the teachers on the list may have caused problems at their academies, or so called "hagwons" in Korea, as claimed in the posts. On the other hand, they may be completely innocent, and simply the target of a disgruntled hagwon director or a student with bad grades who bears a grudge. The fact that the people who contributed to the blacklist can hide behind anonymous user-names means none of the claims can be checked for accuracy before they are viewed by the general public. This immediately calls the process into serious question on both legal and moral grounds.

In an attempt to address the situation, last Wednesday a poster using the name "Westerner" wrote: "Do you guys know the laws related to defamation of character? Stating the passport number can bring a lot of trouble. Be ashamed of yourselves." A couple of hours after this post first appeared, the board moderator deleted it.

According to the law, personal information is something that belongs to a specific individual and is a tool that can identify the individual.

"Because a match can come up between a passport number and an individual, we can say a passport is personal information," said an official at the headquarters for e-gov at the Ministry of Government Information and Home Affairs.

Even without the passport number, if the full name and the reason the teacher is on the blacklist is being posted together, that is enough for the teacher to sue the accuser on charges of defamation of character, said a lawyer who only wanted to be identified by his surname "Lee."

"It doesn't matter whether the information is true or false, but if the post had the purpose of defamation, the accuser can be punished," Lee said. "Especially if the person-in-charge of the website didn't fact check the information beforehand."

Lee said it is entirely possible that the individual making the claims on the website had a personal agenda, unrelated to any alleged wrongdoing on the part of the accused.

If the information was not revealed for the public benefit, there is a better chance of punishment - serving time in jail or paying a fine - for the information provider, Lee said. But only the victims can file a lawsuit, he added.

Also, for disclosing personal information, an individual can served up to three years in prison or pay up to 10 million won in fines, according to the law.

Although the privacy of an individual should be protected, many are voicing opinions that a system that can easily do background checks on an applicant for the post of teacher should be made available to schools.

Some have cited the case of John Mark Karr, now the chief suspect in the murder of six-year-old beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey. Karr taught English for a few months at a Korean academy in 2002. Thai officials arrested him last week for a crime he claims to have committed 10 years ago in the U.S. state of Colorado. A teacher blacklist may have revealed that he had at one time lost his teaching license for possession of child pornography, according to supporters of a blacklist.

Because the demand for native English teachers outweighs the supply in a number of Asian countries, critics have claimed it is too easy for many candidates with forged credentials or criminal records to come and teach in Korea, according to numerous recruiters.

Lee Seung-hae, who works for the online recruiting website Eicoedu, said a resume is what many recruiters depend on when they select their candidates.

"I wish we had an organized system that can check such personal information since the demand for native-speaking teachers is getting higher and higher," he told The Korea Herald, "but I know it won't be so easy."

([email protected])

([email protected])

By Chris Gelken and Cho Ji-hyun

[Mashimaro]

Can't imagine too many koreans caring to much about this breach of privacy unfortunately, but good on them for at least running the story

[Captain Corea]

Agreed, not a bad story.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

A decent report, all in all. If the people behind the teachers blacklist were smart they'd just use a US server, making it almost impossible to get information with which to sue posters.

As I said the last time this was brought up, if we can blacklist schools why can't they blacklist us? Koreans generally do far less research than we do, so I think we still have the upper hand by quite a bit. Besides, I can provide a long list of positive reference from Koreans I've worked with or for, whereas I doubt my previous employer could get a positive reference from any FT he's hired except perhaps someone desperate for additional staff to help ease the workload.

[matthews_world]

Someone's been trolling Dave's Cafe looking for leads. Way to go!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[JeJuJitsu]

How cheap exactly are these hagwons?! Can't spend the $15 and do their own background check (as the article cries about not having means to check teachers out)?

Yoohoo!!!! Any of you Korean haggy owners/recruiters, I'll help you out:

1. go to google.com
2. type in "background check"
3. pay the $11-30 (range)
4. have your results in 5 minutes for cesus jhrist sake...


(or continue with every other elaborate method that doesn't work and will get you sued...but that will save you a couple bucks)

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Captain Corea]

Do universities give out that kind of information over the phone?

[prairieboy]

I applied for a volunteer position with the RCMP in Burnaby. They needed me to fax a signed letter to the registrar's office granting permission for my information to be released to the investigator doing my background check.

I highly doubt any university (in Canada anyways) would risk a lawsuit from releasing information to any Tom, Dick or Harry who called up with a name if they won't even give it to the police for a legitimate reason.

[tiger fancini]

[ttompatz]

[wylies99]

The Herald corp. owns and manages a chain of hogwans and will not publish any stories about corrupt hogwan owners. The Herald has no credibility when it comes to "defending" any rights of good English teachers in Korea.

[unplugged_boy]

I just saw a news documentary on a show called Seven Days about a similar topic this evening. The show referred to the same homepage. But mostly, they were thrashing English teachers implying a number of things. Ie. that white foreign teachers don`t care about their students, they are here to babysit, do not have proper qualifications to teach English, have improper paper work/visas, and spotlighted a particular teacher named "Steve" who seemed to flaunt his sexual conquest of female students online. They even went all the way to canada to show how teachers are recruited, showing classified ads and explaining why most of us are here. They got some sleazeball to say we are here to just pay off student loans (which is actually probably true), that Korean women are very beautiful and how caucasian guys want to hook up with Korean women (which is also probably true). My Korean isn`t that great, but I got the gist, and it didn`t make any teachers look flattering. I guess I`m just trying to warn whoever wants to listen...hold on to your butts.