The government plans to revise its privacy protection guidelines to allow police to more easily use a mobile phone's global positioning system data for criminal investigations, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.
While police are now required to inform targeted persons that their GPS data is being used by police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to remove the requirement, allowing police to secretly track criminal suspects without their knowledge.
The revision to the guidelines for telecommunications companies will be implemented as early as June, after it is subjected to public comment.
When the ministry allowed police to use GPS information for criminal investigations in 2011, it imposed the requirement, heeding mobile phone users' concerns that they could remain under police surveillance permanently.
The National Police Agency has called for removing the requirement, arguing that it has made it difficult to use GPS information for investigations.
Police will still be obliged to obtain court-issued warrants for the use of personal GPS data, following the revision.
The ministry also plans to allow Internet service providers to keep personal communications history data for up to one year in order for investigators to use it when probing illegal online fund transfers.
Currently, the data are kept for only three months due to concerns that a longer storage period would increase the chances of data leaks.