The Personal Information Protection Act was adopted in 2011 to protect the privacy and personal secrets from unlawful gathering, leakage, misuse and abuse of personal information. However, even after its adoption, large-scale personal information leaks continue to occur, notwithstanding the introduction of this Act. For this reason, there has been a constant call for related regulations to raise awareness of the significance of personal data protection.
Headline amendments.
Against this backdrop, a partial amendment to the Personal Information Protection Act (the “Act”) was passed by the National Assembly on July 6, 2015, and was promulgated as a law on July 24, 2015. The main features of the amended version of the Act (the “Amended Act”) are:
- extension of stronger protection measures for individuals affected by data breaches by adopting punitive damages and statutory damages;
- imposing heavier sanctions on personal information violations; and
- reinforcement of functions of the Personal Information Protection Committee.
