Description
During interviews with individuals who experienced the digital surveillance technologies implemented to manage COVID-19 in South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea) as part of my doctoral project, numerous interviewees expressed their perspectives on other countries, particularly those in the West. In this regard, one of the noteworthy discoveries was that most of the participants shared similar views on privacy, digital surveillance and ethical concerns, which are Koreans make minimal efforts to actively protect their privacy rights and ignore ethical issues when utilising digital technologies. In addition, they compared Korea with Western countries, which they believe have a well-established framework for protecting individual rights and privacy.
With this in mind, it tracks the link between studies on national or local characteristics and international studies with the interview data. In order to understand the perspectives of the interviewees, it seems necessary to identify their comparative perceptions of Korea/Asian countries and Western countries based on the interview responses, where the perceptions/thoughts come from and which area needs to be understood in international studies. These trials suggest that we are now at a point in time where international research is essential even for research conducted at the national or local level. In the context of the use of digital surveillance technologies in Korea and in relation to ethical issues such as privacy or individual rights, the following questions are raised by the interview data collected: What kinds of comparative perspectives were found? Why do Koreans compare their country with other countries when it comes to the topic of study? What areas of international studies/theory need to be studied in order to understand these phenomena? By answering the research questions, the approaches would provide clues for multi-perspective studies and for finding more areas for international studies that are not obviously open to us.
