U.S. Korean Rights Group Raises Concerns Regarding NCRC Violations of Adoptee Privacy

USKRG
28 minutes ago
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Adoptees Notify USKRG of 3 Serious Privacy Concerns Occurring Within 5 Months.

For Immediate Release

UNITED STATES, SEPTEMBER 2, 2026 – The U.S. Korean Rights Group (USKRG) has received several documented reports from Korean adoptees describing serious privacy concerns involving the handling of adoption records and private contact information by the National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC).

Data Breach Gives Prospective Adoptive Parents Access to Adoptees’ Personal Information

In March 2026, Jung Da-hyun of The Korea Times reported on an NCRC data breach in which information belonging to adoptees was accessible to prospective adoptive parents. As the article discloses, one of the victims is a USKRG Board Member. Since the publication of the article, additional privacy violations involving adoptees have been reported to USKRG.

Full Adoption Records Sent to the Wrong Adoptees

In May 2026, Adoptee A received an email from Adoptee B, an adoptee unknown to them. Adoptee B contacted Adoptee A after discovering that the adoption records they had received from NCRC belonged to Adoptee A and another adoptee.

Adoptee B had also submitted an adoption information disclosure request. When NCRC notified the adoptee that the request had been fulfilled, Adoptee B downloaded the files from NCRC’s website. Upon opening the files, the adoptee discovered that the records were not their own. Instead, the files contained the adoption records of two other adoptees who were unknown to them.

Because Adoptee B was able to view the records, they found contact information for the adoptees whose records they had received and contacted them to inform them of the error. Adoptee B also forwarded the records to the adoptees to whom they belonged and notified NCRC of the mistake.

After being informed of the error, NCRC sent private messages to the adoptees whose records had been disclosed. [Exhibit 1 may be provided to members of the Korean press upon request.] The message stated: “An incident occurred while processing your Adoption Information Disclosure Request. Unfortunately, your documents were inadvertently mixed with another adoptee’s records and sent to that individual.”

The message went on to state: "Please be assured that immediately upon learning of this error, we took swift action to systematically recall your documents.”

The systematic recall removed the records from Adoptee B’s NCRC account. However, the records had already been downloaded and viewed. Removing the records from the account does not undo the unauthorized access or the disclosure of the information contained in those records.

NCRC Sends Email to at Least 100 Adoptees Without Hiding Email Addresses

USKRG was notified by an adoptee that they had received an email from NCRC on September 1, 2026. The email stated that NCRC was collaborating with the Sungshin Women’s University R&DB Foundation to conduct a survey to gather baseline data for a study titled “Supporting Measures for Adoption Information Disclosure Requests and Access to Adoption Records for People Experiencing Barriers to Information Access.”

NCRC sent the email with the email addresses of approximately 100 adoptees visible in the “To” field rather than using the “BCC” field. [Exhibit 2 may be provided to members of the Korean press upon request.] As a result, each recipient had access to the private contact information of the other adoptees who received the email. Many of the email addresses contain identifying information, including full names or places of employment. Because the email was sent to approximately 100 adoptees, USKRG suspects that NCRC may have sent multiple emails, each to a group of approximately 100 adoptees.

NCRC Protects the Privacy of Korean Nationals, but Not the Adoptees It Is Meant to Serve

USKRG has documented the cases involving more than 100 adoptees across three separate incidents in a five-month period in which adoptees’ private information or adoption records were improperly disclosed.

NCRC is responsible for collecting, digitizing, preserving, and disclosing highly sensitive adoption records, including information about adoptees’ backgrounds and birth parents. NCRC’s own website states that it maintains an integrated system for the permanent preservation of adoption records and processes requests for the disclosure of adoption information. NCRC has repeatedly told adoptees that it cannot provide birth family information because of South Korea’s privacy laws. As a result, vital information about adoptees’ origins and personal histories is withheld. USKRG has long challenged this

approach as a violation of adoptees’ human rights.

The frequency and nature of these reported incidents raise serious concerns about NCRC’s handling of sensitive adoption information and whether adequate safeguards are in place to protect adoptees’ privacy. They also raise questions about whether sufficient measures are being taken to prevent recurrence.

USKRG is committed to documenting adoptees’ experiences and advocating for an adoption information disclosure process that is accurate, timely, secure, transparent, and equitable for all Korean adoptees seeking access to their records. The variety and frequency of the procedural failures by NCRC indicate that there is a larger pattern of institutional negligence.

We encourage adoptees whose privacy has been compromised through NCRC record disclosures or other privacy incidents to document their experiences and share them with their local Korean Rights Group organization. Documenting these incidents will help establish the scope of the problem and support collective efforts to improve Korea’s adoption record disclosure system.

About the Korean Rights Group Movement

The U.S. Korean Rights Group (USKRG) and Canadian Korean Rights Group (CKRG) are non-partisan, grassroots organizations founded and led by Korean adoptees and advocates across the United States and Canada. The organizations advocate for the rights and interests of Korean adoptees and work to advance truth, accountability, and justice in international adoption. They believe that international adoption should be conducted ethically, without financial incentives that compromise the best interests of children, and in accordance with international human rights standards, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. USKRG and CKRG advocate for Korean adoptees’ right to know their origins, accountability for adoption-related human rights violations, access to accurate and complete adoption records, and greater public awareness of the experiences and rights of Korean adoptees.