Korea Introduces Major Amendments To Data Privacy Laws

On 9 January 2020, the Korean National Assembly passed amendments (collectively, the ‘Amendments’) to three major data privacy laws: the Personal Information Protection Act (‘PIPA’), the Act on the Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (‘Network Act’) and the Act on the Use and Protection of Credit Information (‘Credit Information Act’).

The Amendments largely aim to:

• minimise the burden of redundant regulatory activities and confusion among regulated persons stemming from previously overlapping data privacy regulations and multiple supervisory bodies; and
• develop a ‘data economy’ by introducing the concept of ‘pseudonymised data’ and a legal basis upon which data may be utilised more flexibly (to an extent reasonably related to the original purpose of collection).