1.3 KiB
South Korea's comprehensive privacy law (enacted 2011, major amendments 2023 and 2024). One of the strictest privacy regimes globally. Key requirements: consent, data minimization, purpose limitation, mandatory privacy impact assessment, data protection officer, breach notification within 72 hours, cross-border transfer restrictions, right to request data transmission (portability). The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) enforces aggressively.
Penalties: Up to 3% of revenue (raised from 0.5% in 2024 amendments). Criminal penalties up to 5 years imprisonment. PIPC has levied fines of 100B+ KRW (~$75M) against major tech companies. Class action lawsuits permitted.
Who must comply: Any organization handling personal information of South Korean residents. Extraterritorial scope is broad and actively enforced.
Why it matters: PIPA is structurally similar to GDPR but with stricter enforcement and higher penalties relative to market size. The gate stack's purpose-boundary gates map directly to PIPA's purpose limitation requirement. First-mover advantage is large — PIPA has fewer compliance automation vendors than GDPR, and the 2024 amendments (stricter consent, higher fines) are still settling.