Personal information processing policies of 49 companies and institutions, which are closely related to people’s daily life, will be evaluated by the government for the first time this year, the state’s data protection watchdog said Thursday.

The 49 entities include major tech companies and online shopping malls, such as Naver, Kakao, AliExpress and Temu, and the “Big Five” hospitals, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said, noting the decision to screen their personal information processing policies was reached at its plenary meeting on Wednesday.

A personal information processing policy refers to a document written by a company or institution to stipulate how personal information is collected, used and provided, as well as relevant safety measures. But it has been pointed out that its effectiveness is questionable because the content is often difficult to understand. In fact, a survey by the PIPC showed only 34.9 percent of domestic internet users checked a personal information processi
ng policy last year.

Accordingly, the PIPC decided to introduce the evaluation system for the information processing policies by revising the related law last year.

The commission said there are three main evaluation criteria — appropriateness of the items included in the policies, readability of the policy sentences and accessibility by users.

Source: Yonhap News Agency