Establishing Autonomous Protection Governance and Comprehensive Support Measures Including Incentives
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] A broad forum for gathering opinions will be held to ensure autonomous personal information protection in industries that handle a large amount of personal data, such as online shopping, healthcare, and private academies.
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) announced on the 22nd that it will conduct on-site opinion gathering on the 23rd and 24th via video conference to establish and support a governance system for autonomous personal information protection covering both online and offline sectors.
The first round of on-site opinion gathering will target 12 organizations including those in the healthcare sector, and the second round will involve 10 organizations in the online sector. In October, additional on-site opinion gathering will be conducted with expert groups in the personal information field.
Autonomous personal information protection is an essential foundation to fully activate the data economy based on digital trust. Until now, public and offline sectors have been managed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, while the private online sector has been overseen by the Korea Communications Commission.
The autonomous protection policy was introduced in the 2016 Protection Act and has spread mainly among large key associations. However, due to the initial separation of online and offline operations and many sectors such as small business owners and startups still not participating, the practical policy effect has been limited.
However, with the impact of COVID-19 making non-face-to-face services commonplace across all sectors and the activation of the data economy increasing demands for personal information utilization, the need to unify the autonomous personal information protection system has grown.
The PIPC plans to unify existing autonomous regulatory organizations, establish an autonomous protection federation, build an expert support system for governance, expand incentives such as awards and penalty reductions for excellent businesses, and increase tailored consulting services as part of comprehensive support measures.
They will collect opinions from autonomous regulatory organizations and experts who actually perform autonomous protection, and operate a 'System Improvement Research Group' with experts from industry, academia, and research institutes, as well as autonomous regulatory organizations, to prepare field-centered improvement plans within the year.
Kang Yu-min, Director of the Personal Information Policy Bureau at the PIPC, said, "In the era of the data economy and digital transformation, autonomous protection activities must be established in all areas of citizens' daily lives to gain trust in personal information protection. We will faithfully listen to field opinions and reflect them in policies to establish an autonomous protection system that citizens can feel and that benefits businesses."
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