[News Terms] Personal Information Protection Commission Designated 'Pseudonymized Data Integration Specialist Institution'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] 'Pseudonymized information' refers to personal information whose identifiability has been reduced by deleting or substituting identifiable information such as name or phone number. In other words, a 'Pseudonymized Information Integration Specialist Institution' is a specialized institution that possesses technology to combine pseudonymized information held by such personal information handlers to enhance data value.

The concept of pseudonymized information was first introduced after the enforcement of the three data-related laws?the Personal Information Protection Act, the Credit Information Act, and the Information and Communications Network Act?in August 2020. According to the 'Pseudonymized Information Processing Guidelines' published by the Personal Information Protection Commission and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, since there is a risk of identifying specific individuals during the pseudonymized information integration process, the integration must be performed through a trusted third party institution (integration specialist institution).

Pseudonymized Information Integration and Export Procedures (Draft).
[Table provided by the Personal Information Protection Commission]

Also, when a personal information handler who wishes to apply for pseudonymized information integration submits an application, the integration specialist institution must promptly integrate the pseudonymized information using the 'integration key linkage information' generated by the integration key management institution, and the integrated information must be exported after an export review of the integrated data.

Accordingly, related government agencies such as the Personal Information Protection Commission have designated integration specialist institutions performing pseudonymized information integration since 2020 and have been accumulating integration cases.

The pseudonymized information integration specialist institutions designated by the government include a total of 23 public and private sector organizations: Statistics Korea, Korea Communications Agency (KCA), Samsung SDS, Korea Local Information Development Institute (KLID), Lotte Data Communication Company, Korea Information Certificate Authority (KICA), Shinsegae I&C, Social Security Information Service (SSIS), National Tax Service, LG CNS, National Health Insurance Service, Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, National Cancer Center, Korea Expressway Corporation, National Information Society Agency (NIA), Duzon Bizon Co., Ltd., SK C&C Co., Ltd., BC Card, Korea Data Agency, Korea Education and Research Information Service, KEPCO KDN, National Information Resources Service, and CJ Co., Ltd.