Bae, Kim & Lee LLC (BKL) held a seminar to discuss the use of personal information for developing artificial intelligence (AI) and the responsibilities of corporations under the amended Personal Information Protection Act.
Bae, Kim & Lee said on the 20th that it held a seminar titled "New challenges of the amended Personal Information Protection Act: use of AI data and corporate responsibility" at its headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul, in partnership with the Korea Association for AI Law and the Korea Association of Personal Information Professionals (KAPP). About 100 corporate officials attended the seminar.
The seminar focused on major issues including the legal basis for using personal information in AI training and related special exception regimes, the penalty surcharge for personal information leaks, and strengthened corporate liability.
In the first session, Bae, Kim & Lee attorney Lee Kang-hye presented on the theme "reexamining AI data utilization strategies and institutional hurdles." Lee compared legitimate interests and additional use that can apply when lawfully collected personal information is used for AI development and training, as well as special exception regimes related to AI.
The explanation was that corporations must review the appropriate legal basis depending on the purpose of data collection and the method of processing. Lee also introduced an AI-related personal information special exception bill under discussion in the National Assembly and legislative trends in Japan and the European Union (EU).
Won So-yeon, head of the Regulatory Policy Research Office at The Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA), delivered the second session, "recommendations for successful use of the AI special exception regime." Won said that for AI special exceptions to support corporate innovation, the review process should be made more predictable and excessive additional conditions and procedural burdens should be reduced.
She added that establishing objective and specific criteria for the scope of the exceptions, the review framework, and additional conditions is a task necessary for the regime to take root.
In the third session, Bae, Kim & Lee attorney Lee Su-hwa presented on "changes to the penalty surcharge regime under the Personal Information Protection Act and corporations' response strategies."
Lee predicted that, under the amended Personal Information Protection Act, a serious penalty surcharge regime will be introduced and obligations for responding to personal information leaks, as well as the responsibilities of the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief privacy officer (CPO), will be strengthened. Lee advised that corporations should manage grounds for mitigation of penalty surcharges and establish internal controls in advance to prove them.
The panel discussion was chaired by Choi Kyung-jin, head of the Korea Association for AI Law and a professor at Gachon University. Participants included Director Choi Yoon-jung of the Personal Information Protection Commission, Professor Yoon Hye-seon of Hanyang University, Naver Executive Vice President Lee Jin-gyu, Meta Platforms Manager Yoo Da-young, Jipyong LLC attorney Song Do-young, and Bae, Kim & Lee attorney Kang Tae-uk.
The panel discussed balancing AI data use with personal information protection, how to operate AI special exceptions, and tasks for corporations in response to the enforcement of the amended Personal Information Protection Act.
At the opening ceremony, Choi gave opening remarks and Bae, Kim & Lee senior advisor Heo Sung-uk delivered congratulatory remarks. Heo previously served as head of the National Information Society Agency (NIA).