‘My information was stolen’, each person survives… Dilemma of additional exposure while trying to erase with AI

As personal information leakage incidents continue to occur, an increasing number of citizens are using artificial intelligence (AI) to find and delete their own information.

They are moving away from the passive attitude of blindly waiting for a response from a company or institution or leaving it to a professional company and are now trying to ‘survive digitally on their own.’

However, some point out that caution is needed as there is a possibility of additional personal information being exposed in the process of entering prompts (commands) into AI.

According to Yonhap News coverage on the 11th, specific prompts (commands) have recently been shared on social networking services (SNS) and online communities that use AI's work mode to find and request deletion of personal information spread online.

For example, the method is to ask the AI ​​to "Find the site on the Internet where my personal information has been exposed and the link to request deletion," and then instruct it to "Write a deletion request for each site and submit it directly," and "Check whether it has been deleted every week and re-request it for places that have not been deleted."

Mr. Song (24), a college student living in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, recently tried this AI deletion method as his anxiety grew after receiving a voice phishing call pretending to be a package delivery.

Mr. Song said, "I asked Chat GPT because I was wondering if my information was also circulating on the Internet. I was curious about which site my information was leaked to, but after using AI to check and request deletion, my anxiety seemed to have decreased a lot."

Mr. Lee, an office worker in his 50s, also said, "I was vaguely anxious when I saw the news of my personal information being leaked, but when I asked the AI ​​how to find it, it showed me step-by-step how to do it," and added, "Rather than just waiting, I thought I should try to do what I can."

This movement to search for leaked information on one's own is also leading to the use of services to check whether personal information has been leaked.

Recently, interest has increased as customer information was leaked due to an all-encompassing artificial intelligence (AI) hacking attack at a major domestic commercial bank.

According to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), as of the 7th of this month, the number of inquiries as to whether personal information was leaked through the 'Find my stolen information' service operated by KISA reached a total of 6,620.

Approximately 1,000 personal information leak inquiries are made per day.

‘Find my stolen information’ is a service that allows users to check whether their ID and password are being distributed on the dark web. You can search after verifying your email.

Even based on online search volume, interest in personal information leaks is rapidly increasing.

According to Naver Data Lab, the average daily search volume for 'personal information leakage' through the 7th of this month increased by 243% compared to the average daily search volume last month.

On the other hand, the increasing trend in the use of ‘digital funeral directors’ is not noticeable.

An official from a digital funeral company said, “The average number of requests per day this month is similar to last month,” and added, “We thought the number of inquiries would increase due to the recent personal information leak, but there has been no significant change.”

Experts analyzed that the successive hacking incidents and growing distrust in corporate responses reflected the movement of consumers to directly check and resolve personal information leakage damage.

Here, he pointed out that as AI develops rapidly and accessibility improves, the method of citizens using it to directly delete items is spreading.

Lee Young-ae, a professor of consumer studies at Incheon National University, said, "From the consumer's perspective, they feel that they are not satisfied with the company's response to the leak of personal information, and they have accumulated fatigue and anger. They think that if they just sit around, the problem will get bigger or the damage will not be resolved, so they are trying to solve it themselves."

In addition, the analysis said, “The psychology of seeking certainty is reflected in the fact that by using AI, it can be deleted immediately with relatively less time and cost than by a professional company.”

However, some point out that security experts should beware of the 'dilemma' of increasing the risk of exposure by entering sensitive personal information into AI again in order to delete personal information.

Joo-beom Yoon, a professor in the Department of Information Security at Sejong University, pointed out, "Even if you set the function not to save the contents of conversations with AI, the moment the command leaves your PC and goes to the server, someone may intercept the data, or the AI ​​may reuse the information."

Some suggest that it is an urgent priority to strengthen account security, such as using multiple authentication methods to prevent personal information that has already been leaked from causing additional damage.

Park Chun-sik, a professor of information security at Seoul Women's University, said, "You should not use the same ID and password for multiple accounts," and urged users to use the 'multifactor authentication' (MFA) method, which verifies identity by using additional authentication methods other than ID and password.