Naver “Collects news user information to classify political tendencies? Unfounded” :: Sympathetic Media Newsis ::

“Category for a specific group

“Receive consent to collect personal information according to legal procedures”

(Seoul = Newsis) Reporter Jeongmin Yoon = Naver refutes claims that it collects news consumption history without user consent and classifies users’ political inclinations for its artificial intelligence (AI)-based article recommendation service (AiRS), saying that this is not true. did it

Naver announced on its official blog on the afternoon of the 13th, “Naver cannot group news users or determine their political tendencies. We do not use service usage records without consent and comply with the ‘Personal Information Protection Principles.'”

Naver posted an explanation the previous day to refute the statement made by the MBC Labor Union (the third union). The third labor union claimed that Naver selects the article consumption characteristics of each news service user and classifies them into groups with similar tendencies.

The third labor union said that ‘prediction of article preferences’ is being made by classifying people into specific political orientation groups or specific news consumption groups through ‘collaborative filter (CF)’ among Naver’s AI recommendation models.

However, Naver refuted the third union’s claim that it cannot judge the political inclinations of news users and that the propensity to consume articles coincides with the political inclinations, saying it lacks evidence.

Regarding CF, Naver said, “It is a model that refers to the service usage records of other users who have viewed the same articles (as the user),” and “It does not match or classify users to a specific group by recommending article candidates predicted to be preferred by the user.” “I don’t,” he said.

Regarding the suspicion that service use records were used without user consent, “Consent to the collection, use, and provision of personal information is obtained in accordance with legal procedures. The personal information processing policy explains that personal information can be used for service improvement purposes during the process of collecting personal information.” “We are doing it,” he claimed.

“We are doing our best to protect personal information protection principles when reflecting new services,” he said. “In order to create a social atmosphere that requires specifying the processing of personal information related to artificial intelligence and for users to more easily understand, “It included information related to intelligence,” he said.

Naver said, “The appropriateness and rationality of the news algorithm structure is being transparently reviewed, and we will continue to correct misunderstandings about the algorithm and communicate with users through various channels.”

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