The South Korean government is preparing follow-up measures as the so-called three data-related bills recently passed the National Assembly to allow the use of pseudonym and anonymous information.

Interested parties including the Ministry of Interior and Safety, Korea Communications Commission, Financial Services Commission and Personal Information Protection Commission announced Tuesday that they will come up with subordinate bills and collect opinions from the public and businesses before the laws go into effect in July.

As part of the efforts, the government started reviewing process for the European Union (EU)’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a legislation that came into force in May 2018 to give consumers control of their own personal information collected by companies. A country needs to prove its level of personal data protection is at the same level as the EU’s GDPR in order to facilitate business of domestic companies operating in the economic bloc. The Interior minister plans to visit the EU Executive Committee and European Parliament next month to urge the EU to identify Korea as a GDPR honoring nation.

The government will draft a guideline by April to revise laws by July to allow access to pseudonym and anonymous information only for the purpose of statistics, scientific research and public interest. An organization that uses the data without security measures will be fined up to 30 million won ($25,755), and offenders will be faced with up to two years of jail term or 20 million won in fine.

By Shin Chan-ok and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]