01
CCTV REFERENCE EVIDENCE
24.28 cameras / 1k
243,426 reported cameras in Seoul. Reference-city evidence only; national scope is not inferred.
Open CCTV sourceTHE EVIDENCE STACK
Seven records
Different claims
Every measure has its own source, date, and scope. The country profile keeps them distinct by design.
FACE / BIOMETRIC
Documented pilot or limited use
Seoul public-health pilot · 2021
A Reuters-reported Seoul pilot used AI-powered facial recognition to reconstruct contacts during COVID-19. This record is labelled pilot or limited use rather than a national public-space deployment score.
AI USE SCOPE
Crowd analytics
2023-10 · High confidence
Seoul announced CCTV-linked analytical software for people counting and danger alerts in anticipated mass-gathering areas, with information relayed to city, fire, and police rooms.
The source documents a crowd-safety deployment in named areas, not a general facial-recognition or national programme.
Seoul Metropolitan Government · 2023PRIVATE-CAMERA LINK
No comparable public evidence located
Pilot evidence review · 2026-08
Municipal emergency-feed sharing is documented, but the review did not validate an equivalent public–private camera-access mechanism for this country record. The gap is retained explicitly.
SAFEGUARDS CONTEXT
82.9 / 100
WJP 2025 Factor 4.6: protection from arbitrary interference with privacy in practice. The score changed -1.0 points from 2024.
Open WJP sourceSUPPLIER / PROCUREMENT
Evidence gap retained
Not documented in this release
No attributed supplier, public body, and surveillance-relevant system chain was verified for this pilot record.
An evidence gap is not a finding that no supplier, contract, or public procurement exists.
No comparable public source located in this reviewINCIDENTS & REDRESS
Evidence gap
Review completed 2026-08 · Pilot evidence review
No incident record published in this pilot release
The first review did not locate a sufficiently accessible, surveillance-specific incident record that meets the Editorial & Evidence Protocol’s publication threshold.
Initial candidates require fuller source verification before cross-agency biometric-data claims can be responsibly summarised.
No comparable public source located in this reviewOpen incidents & redressDATA INFRASTRUCTURE & JURISDICTION
Where data may sit, and what can govern it
These are separate contextual records. Data-centre capacity is not evidence of surveillance access; legal powers are not evidence of their use.
CONTEXT, NOT PROOF
The reviewed sources vary in type and do not provide a single official, comparable data-centre inventory.
Medium confidenceReported facility context
2022
A public market report cites facility growth, but the pilot does not use its third-party count as a comparative capacity metric.
Sector-specific localisation
2026
Public policy analysis describes sector-specific conditions for personal and government data; this is not treated as a universal rule.
Government cloud security framework
2026
Korea’s CSAP framework documents security conditions for cloud services used in government contexts.
Subscriber-information disclosure context
2024
Rights-group legal analysis describes statutory mechanisms for subscriber-information disclosure; this is not evidence of camera-data access.
SOURCE HISTORY
When the record changed.
The timeline preserves source vintages and review dates so changes can be examined rather than announced without a record.
- 2024
- 2025-06CCTV evidence source
Seoul: 243,426 reported cameras; 24.28 per 1,000 people in the documented reference place.
Open source - 2025
- 2021Facial-recognition record
A Reuters-reported Seoul pilot used AI-powered facial recognition to reconstruct contacts during COVID-19. This record is labelled pilot or limited use rather than a national public-space deployment score.
Open source - 2026-08Camera-integration record
Municipal emergency-feed sharing is documented, but the review did not validate an equivalent public–private camera-access mechanism for this country record. The gap is retained explicitly.
No comparable public source located in this review - 2023-10AI use-scope record
Crowd analytics · Live public space · Automated alert. Seoul announced CCTV-linked analytical software for people counting and danger alerts in anticipated mass-gathering areas, with information relayed to city, fire, and police rooms.
Open source - 2026-08Supplier / procurement record
No attributed supplier, public body, and surveillance-relevant system chain was verified for this pilot record.
No comparable public source located in this review - 2022Data-infrastructure context
A public market report cites facility growth, but the pilot does not use its third-party count as a comparative capacity metric.
Open source - 2024Lawful-access context
Rights-group legal analysis describes statutory mechanisms for subscriber-information disclosure; this is not evidence of camera-data access.
Open source - Review completed 2026-08Incident / redress record
Evidence gap: The first review did not locate a sufficiently accessible, surveillance-specific incident record that meets the Editorial & Evidence Protocol’s publication threshold.
No comparable public source located in this review - 2026-08Layer evidence review
Record category: Partial layer record. This version preserves gaps rather than treating them as evidence of absence.
No comparable public source located in this review
REVIEWED PUBLIC UPDATES
Accepted additions and corrections.
Community submissions remain private until an editor checks the source, scope, and status. Only accepted changes appear here.
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