Personal Information Protection Commission Shares Privacy Policy Achievements at 'APPA Forum'

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) announced that it participated in the ‘56th APPA Forum (Asia-Pacific Privacy Authorities Meeting)’ held on the 1st, hosted by the Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, Canada.

APPA (Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities) is a consultative body of privacy authorities in the Asia-Pacific region, consisting of 19 institutions from 12 countries including Korea, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Macau. The APPA Forum is held twice a year to share privacy-related policies and trends from around the world, and this forum will continue until the 3rd.

At this forum, over 200 participants including member countries, invited guests such as the U.S. Department of Justice, and heads of major national privacy authorities attended online to engage in in-depth discussions on various agendas such as the activation of cross-border data transfers, privacy protection during the pandemic, telemedicine, and the use of pseudonymized information.

On the first day of the forum, Yoon Jong-in, Chairperson of the PIPC, shared Korea’s recent achievements and trends in privacy protection policies and future plans with the international community during the national trends presentation session, following the 55th APPA Forum held last June.

Chairperson Yoon explained cases of PIPC’s sanctions such as fines imposed on global companies like Facebook, Netflix, and Google for violations of the ‘Personal Information Protection Act,’ and the preparation of joint regulatory proposals to strengthen privacy protection in the online platform sector. He also introduced privacy protection measures such as improvements to entry logs conducted by the PIPC to alleviate concerns about the leakage of personal information collected and processed during the COVID-19 response, as well as cases of inspecting and improving the personal information processing status and systems at frontline quarantine sites in cooperation with quarantine authorities.

On the second day, the 2nd, Yoon Dong-wook, Director of the Data Safety Policy Division at the PIPC, will present achievements in promoting the safe use of data in the data economy era under the theme of ‘Utilization and Expansion Plans of Pseudonymized Information.’ Director Yoon will explain ▲ the establishment of laws and guidelines for the use of pseudonymized information ▲ pilot cases of pseudonymized information linkage ▲ measures to strengthen the safety and utilization capabilities of pseudonymized information. On the final day, the 3rd, broad discussions on compliance with the accountability of personal information processors and the ethical development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to take place.

Chairperson Yoon stated, “Through international cooperation platforms such as the APPA Forum, we will continuously strengthen exchanges and cooperation with privacy authorities around the world and establish a global cooperative governance system for privacy protection and utilization suitable for the data economy era.”