According to the publication The Korea GeraldSouth Korea’s military is considering a complete ban on the use of Apple iPhones at military facilities due to concerns about the possible leakage of confidential information through voice recordings.
A group of high-ranking officers, who wished to remain anonymous, said that on April 11, the country’s air force headquarters published an announcement on the military’s intranet server, which instructed a complete ban on any devices that can record voice and do not allow third-party applications to control their functions, starting June 1. The iPhone is specifically named as a device that falls under the ban. The decision to ban the iPhone in the Korean army was made at joint meetings held by the headquarters of the army, navy and air force.
«It is unavoidable to block any kind of voice recording, not only formal communication, including meetings, office conversations, business announcements and complaints, and public consultations, but also informal communication such as private phone calls (within military installations)», — the document says.
The ban was supposed to cover all types of smartphones, smartwatches and other wearable devices. Sources, however, claimed that Android-based smartphones, mostly from Samsung Electronics, would be exempt from the ban, while the document explicitly states that «carrying iPhones would be completely banned».
Discussions about a potential ban on the iPhone began last September when SK Telecom, the country’s leading telecommunications operator, introduced an unprecedented call recording feature for the iPhone through its A-Dot app. Initially, Apple’s iPhone did not support call recording due to privacy concerns, as many US states, including California, prohibit the recording of voice calls without the consent of the other person.
In Korea, call recording is legal, but cases of abuse, such as privacy violations, may be subject to legal penalties. Many Galaxy users say they continue to use Samsung phones mainly because of the call recording feature. Almost seven out of 10 people in Korea use Galaxy phones.
The military security app has been criticized for its unreliability. Depending on which version of Android is installed on the phone, the app. However, another military official said that this flaw is likely to be addressed later through an update.
Meanwhile, Korea’s National Human Rights Commission ruled in March that requiring all military personnel in every location to install a security program was an excessive restriction on human rights. The Commission recommended that the Minister of Defense create a provision for the forced installation of the security app in the relevant military security law. It also recommended that the mandatory installation of the app be limited to only required personnel and locations.