Republic of Korea: Announced PIPC Prior Appropriateness Review System for new technologies such as AI to ensure compliance with Personal Information Protection Act

On 11 October 2023, the Korean Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) announced the pilot for the Prior Appropriateness Review System for new technologies such as AI to ensure compliance with the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). The pilot is part of the PIPC Policy Direction for Safeguarding Personal Information in the AI Era. The system aims at proactively identifying compliance with PIPA and reducing legal uncertainty for the use of new technologies. Businesses can submit new services and technologies prior to their implementation to the pre-approval suitability review system. The PIPC will examine these and, with the businesses, design an approach to ensure compliance with the Personal Information Protection Act. If the businesses act in accordance with this approach, they will be exempted from any administrative sanctions. The pilot operation will run from 13 October 2023, and the system will be fully implemented in January 2024.