Overview of Personal Information Protection Act in Korea

The Personal Information Protection Act enacted in March 2011 stated that the application target of this law includes all personal information processors in the public and private sector, and established the protection standard by phase such as collection, use and provision of personal information. There was an introduction of the Privacy Impact Assessment system that enables personal information processors to perform impact assessment autonomously if there are great concerns over the fact that making and expanding personal information files will influence the protection of personal information, while also making impact assessment compulsory for public institutions in specific reasons with great concerns for violating the rights of the subjects of information. This Act still has the problem that it is generally difficult to understand.This paper deals with the Korean legal practices about the personal information protection with regard to ambiguity and promotional system.