Asia-Pacific Personal Data Protection Authorities Forum to be Held in Seoul in June Next Year

Yoon Jong-in, Chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission, is speaking at the 54th APPA Forum held at the Government Seoul Office on the 10th.
[Photo by Personal Information Protection Commission]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The Personal Information Protection Commission announced on the 10th that it has decided to hold the next forum of the Asia-Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) in Seoul.

At the closing ceremony of the 54th forum held online on the morning of the same day, APPA decided to hold the 55th forum in Seoul at the end of June next year. APPA is a privacy supervisory body consortium consisting of 12 major countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Korea, the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

The APPA forum is held twice a year, where 12 member countries and invited countries share trends in their respective privacy protection activities and discuss joint responses to major issues such as privacy breaches.

Yoon Jong-in, Chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission, said, "The 55th APPA forum, which was decided to be held in Korea this time, is significant as it is the first international privacy protection conference held in Korea after the amendment of the three data-related laws." He added, "We will prepare to make it a meaningful forum that contributes to expanding and strengthening international cooperation by discussing safe data utilization methods based on public trust in the data economy era, not only in the Asia-Pacific region but also on a global scale."

The 54th forum hosted by Australia was held online considering the COVID-19 pandemic. About 200 participants, including heads of privacy supervisory agencies from major countries, attended the forum to discuss privacy protection activities related to COVID-19 response, trends in legislative amendments in each country, and responses to privacy issues.

In Korea, Chairman Yoon participated and presented on Korea's COVID-19 response and related privacy breach prevention activities, the imposition of a 6.7 billion KRW fine on Facebook for providing user information without consent, and the enhanced role of the Personal Information Protection Commission following the amendment of the Personal Information Protection Act.