Gov′t simplifying online shopping process for foreigners 쇼핑몰, 과도한 본인인증 절차 간소화
Talk to any foreigner who′s lived in Korea for any extended period of time, and they′ll tell you that shopping online can be a complicated and frustrating ordeal But relief is on the way, as the government is working toward changes that would simplify the process Yoo Li-an has the details In 2008, the personal information of about 10 million people is leaked from a online shopping mall Another 20 million customers fall victim in 2009 and 2010 when a total of 25 online shopping malls are hacked into And since Koreans are required to provide their social security numbers, birth dates and other personal info to sign up for membership, all of it is exposed Foreigners don′t have the same problem, because they don′t have Korean social security numbers, but that presents another issue for them, as they′re unable to shopping online without such a number To combat data leaks and increase the accessibility to online shopping malls for foreigners, the government has decided to do away with a number of measures by the first half of next year Providing social security numbers will no longer be a requirement for Koreans when making purchases online, and foreigners will be able to purchase goods by verifying their identity through credit cards "We are going to devise new regulations for core growth areas like e-commerce To do so, we are going to set up a panel of people from different fields of expertise " By breaking down the barriers to online shopping for foreigners, the government expects exports in the sector to increase to 300 billion U S dollars by 2017, up from about 24 million last year Yoo Li-an, Arirang News