[The Editors' Verdict] Enhancing Compliance with Data Policies Is Essential

Professor Shin Minsu, Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Minsoo Shin, Professor of Business Administration at Hanyang University] Recently, the ruling and opposition parties have been competitively proposing bills aimed at strengthening the data economy, including the Data 3 Act passed by the National Assembly and bills to establish data-related ministries. Considering the growing impact of data on individuals' lives, this is a welcome development.

However, looking at the debates surrounding the amendment of the Data 3 Act, concerns about policy failure are also increasing. When reviewing past policy failures, most cases stem from issues in the policy implementation process, with the most problematic aspect being the lack of 'policy compliance.' Policy compliance refers to acting in a manner aligned with the policy's intended goals. Implementing policies without securing policy compliance is not only ineffective but also risks the policy's value being lost.

To enhance compliance with data policies, discussions on various means and strategies to suppress policy noncompliance should be held from the policy design stage. In particular, it is necessary to form a 'national consensus' that the goals pursued by the policy are desirable and that the means to achieve those goals are appropriate. Policies must align not only with the authorities but also with the subjective evaluations of the citizens who are the policy targets to facilitate policy compliance. An important factor here is an ethical standard that pursues the interests of the social community rather than maximizing the interests of specific groups. To this end, detailed reviews of the necessity for data policy improvement, the appropriateness of the timing of such improvements, and the subjective evaluations of the target groups regarding the policy are required.

Additionally, clear criteria regarding the categories of data subject to the policy and methods of processing must be established. When these aspects are ambiguous, distortions are likely to occur during the policy decision-making process, making it difficult for the policy to function effectively. Currently, the area attracting attention from stakeholders is data that includes personal information. However, data generally includes not only personal information-based data but also data generated through sensors or equipment in manufacturing processes, and the characteristics of data vary by domain. To safely utilize data with diverse characteristics, laws beyond the Data 3 Act, which has been the focus of discussions so far, such as copyright law, unfair competition prevention law, and civil law, must also be considered simultaneously.

Furthermore, policy compliance can be enhanced through 'improving policy equity.' Equity refers to whether resources are allocated to appropriately reflect the abilities and contributions of the policy target groups and to meet their minimum needs. It is necessary to examine whether the policy can be applied fairly to groups with different data protection and utilization capabilities, such as sectors with different data composition and utilization characteristics like finance and manufacturing, and companies of different sizes such as large corporations and small and medium-sized ventures, and whether the enforcement of such policies causes income and inequality disparities.

Moreover, the expertise and responsiveness of policy implementation agencies are also very important factors in increasing policy compliance. The current legal foundation, which remains limited to the use of pseudonymized and personal information, must be expanded to provide institutional support for the entire process from data generation and collection to distribution and transaction.

Ultimately, no policy can succeed unless the target groups and members accept it, and administrative trust cannot be guaranteed. Without policy compliance, reforms are difficult to expect, so additional considerations such as resolving practical obstacles that hinder the compliance of the policy target groups must be prioritized in the policy design process.