Can currently combine information only through other agencies
Industry "Need forward-looking discussion to expand the market"
NGOs oppose "possibility of data monopoly"
Personal Information Protection
Although the government is pushing to expand agencies specialized in combining pseudonymized information, the industry is becoming more dissatisfied as 'self-combination' by private agencies to combine the data they own is not allowed. It seems necessary to have a discussion on allowing self-combination for private agencies to combine their data like public. According to the industry on the 19th, it was found difficult for companies designated or to be designated as agencies that specialize in combining pseudonymized information to expand and enter the market due to the current policy of not allowing self-combination by the government. Pseudonymized information makes part of personal information and specific individual unidentifiable without additional information. It emerged as a key concept when the National Assembly passed the Data 3 Act last year. It is expected that information held by companies or the public will be converted into pseudonymized information to increase the data combination and utilization among different industries and institutions. Agencies could combine pseudonymized information if they passed certain requirements and are designated as combining agencies by the government. As of July, 17 specialized institutions were designated.
The industry is demanding permission for 'self-combination'. According to current notice, specialized agencies must go through another agency to combine their information. An official from the data combining agency said,” The current law does not allow another company to combine our pseudonym information, so we have to send the data to another organization. Even though we have become a specialized agency in recognition of our data management expertise, we cannot even do our business.” Last year, the Personal Information Protection Commission allowed public institutions to self-combine information. As an exception, public combination agencies can directly combine data information. Accordingly, the National Health Insurance Service, a combination specialized agency, combined its own medical information with the clinical information of lung cancer patients at the National Cancer Center to track complications and chronic diseases that occur in cancer patients.
The government is hesitant to allow full self-combination because of the opposition of civic groups, which are opposed to allowing self-combination due to the possibility of monopolizing data by specific companies (combination specialized agencies) and on the grounds that it is only for profit-making goal. The industry is arguing that as the government has confirmed its policy to increase the number of specialized agencies, forward-looking discussions are necessary for private companies to participate and to expand the cases of pseudonymized information.
An official from a company preparing to be designated as a data-combining institution said, “Private companies’ role in data combination is to create various combination cases and increase data use. If we cannot even handle the data we own, our business scope will decrease, and we will be much less aggressive even after we’re designated as a data-combining institution. The government announced last month that it will expand the number of agencies for combining pseudonymized information to 27 within this year. It plans to implement customized support measures to spread combination and use of pseudonym information, such as simplifying the designation process for and nurturing experts. An official from the Personal Information Protection Committee said, "We will review (whether to allow self-combination) step by step by examining various cases."
By Kim Ji-seon, Staff Reporter river@etnews.com