Are my documents secure during the TRC 3 process?

If you are a Korean Adoptee considering submitting your case to TRC 3, you might be wondering:

Are my application and adoption documents secure during the TRC 3 process?

We think the answer is: NO.

There are a number of reasons we do NOT think that your data privacy is guaranteed during the TRC 3 process, no matter what assurances you are provided.

1. In order to submit your case to TRC 3, even if you submit your case INDEPENDENTLY, you must do so through a Korean Consulate / Embassy in your home country, or through email to TRC 3. So far as we know, TRC 3 does NOT have a secure email system through which to submit documents.

2. TRC 3 does NOT currently have a records management division. Frankly, who knows what happens to your documents after they are submitted to tRC 3. Please see:

The Hankyoreh Article: “Records Experts: ‘A Records Management Division Must Be Established in the 3rd Truth and Reconciliation Commission’”.

3. While those outside the TRC 3 investigators and commissioners are NOT supposed to have access to Adoptees’ sensitive, private adoption documents, we have been told that during TRC 2, that the representative Korean Adoptee “Rights” group DID in some cases have access to Adoptees’ documents, which they were NOT supposed to have had past the point of submission to TRC 2. We think this is extremely problematic.

4. Korean Adoptees who submit their cases through representative Korean “Rights” groups should know that their documents are almost certainly going to be subjected to algorithms and AI. You will never be able to know in exactly which way your documents are being used by others, once you submit them to anyone else — whether that is a representative group, or to TRC 3 itself. Even if you withdraw your case and your consent, there will be no way for you to get your documents back.

5. Frankly, anytime sensitive, private documents leave your hands, you have no control over their privacy anymore.

CONCLUSION:

Unfortunately Adoptees should NOT assume that any sensitive, private adoption documents will have total PRIVACY if submitted to TRC 3 — whether the Adoptee submits their application through a representative group, or INDEPENDENTLY.

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An IMPORTANT word of CAUTION for U.S. Korean Adoptees.

Especially if you are a U.S. Korean Adoptee, please think CAREFULLY about whether or not it is SAFE in these times to share your sensitive, private adoption documents with strangers — whether that is with representative Adoptee led Korean “Rights” groups, or with TRC 3 itself!

In the CONSENT form which you must sign as part of your TRC 3 application, you are asked by TRC 3 if you CONSENT or DO NOT CONSENT to the following statement:

“I hereby consent to the collection and use of my personal data by third parties other than TRC.”

Please note that if you CONSENT, this means that your sensitive, private adoption documents are likely to be shared with representative Adoptee led Korean “Rights” groups, who will likely run your documents through algorithms and AI. However, IF your case is accepted by TRC 3, it may also be necessary in the course of their investigation of your case to share documents with various officials in Korea in order to obtain information about your case. So you have to carefully decide how much privacy matters to you in this process. To be on the safe side of assumptions, you should assume that if you submit your documents to TRC 3, your documents may be run through AI at some point, no matter what your level of consent.

We STRONGLY recommend that you REDACT any sensitive, private information such as (for U.S. Adoptee) their A (Alien) Number, which is often found on various adoption documents. Basically REDACT ANYTHING you think may be too sensitive to share!

Please DO NOT submit any documents to any Adoptee led Korean “Rights” groups or to TRC 3 which you do not RFIRST REDACT for sensitive, private information. You have NO real guarantee of document PRIVACY in this process!