The South Korean authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), has initiated a procedure to reform its legal framework on personal data to adapt it to the era of artificial intelligence.

The Commission established a Working Group on Personal Information System Innovation on July 30 and launched a public consultation from August 6 to 31 to gather proposals from citizens, companies, and researchers. This initiative aims to reassess the effectiveness of the current protection system, deemed inadequate for the rapid evolution of the data environment. The legal framework, based on individual consent and a stepwise approach (collection, use, provision), is considered outdated in light of the expanding scope of processed data, which now includes unstructured information and third-party data for AI model training.

The PIPC highlights several limitations of the current system, notably the excessive formalization of consent which weakens individuals' real control, and obstacles to international scientific research due to the practical impossibility of obtaining new consent for the cross-border transfer of pseudonymized data. Also cited are difficulties in deploying artificial intelligence agent services, whose operation is incompatible with a one-time consent logic, as well as the emergence of new privacy risks related to physical AI devices such as robots, drones, or smart glasses. The proposals collected will be subject to public debates to define a new direction for data protection, which will be announced by the end of the year.