Lee Mun-han, Member of the Personal Information Commission, "Will Create Guidelines to Resolve Legal Uncertainty"

"Specific guidelines that can resolve the legal uncertainties of AI-related businesses in the second half of this year are expected to be provided."

On the 28th, at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Imoonhan, a member of the Personal Information Protection Commission, is giving a special lecture at the "2024 Legal Tech & AI Show (LTAS)" hosted by Legal Newspaper and Messeisang. Photo by Legal Newspaper

On the 28th, Lee Moon-han, a commissioner of the Personal Information Protection Commission, said this at the '2024 Legal Tech Artificial Intelligence Special Show (LTAS)' held at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, hosted by Legal Times and Messe Isang. Commissioner Lee delivered a special lecture on the theme of 'The Mutual Development Direction of Generative AI and Privacy Protection Policies.'

On that day, Commissioner Lee emphasized the necessity of reasonable data policies. In the era of deepening digitalization, data is a key driving force leading the development of new industries such as AI and socio-economic innovation. However, at the same time, ensuring the data subject's right to self-determination of personal information is becoming increasingly important in AI development and services. He explained, "Only by harmoniously balancing the two values of 'data utilization' and 'data protection' can the AI industry proceed well without infringing on human rights or individual privacy."

He diagnosed that the need for such policies is growing especially because generative AI shows different patterns in data processing compared to before. Commissioner Lee said, "When training generative AI, a large amount of unlabeled data is learned, and the learning of complex data such as videos and publicly available internet data has greatly increased, showing different data processing patterns from the past."

He added, "It is necessary to reasonably apply personal information protection principles to maximize AI's opportunities and benefits while minimizing the risks of personal information infringement that AI may cause," and said, "The AI policy of the Personal Information Protection Commission aims to establish a regulatory system centered on 'principles' rather than detailed 'regulations.'"

He also stressed that to revitalize the data economy, legal uncertainties must be resolved by reflecting the difficulties companies face in securing and utilizing data. According to the '2022 AI Industry Status Survey Report' announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT, 23.2% of all respondents said they had difficulties securing data due to strengthened regulations under the Personal Information Protection Act.

To this end, he emphasized the need to provide clearer guidelines regarding the application of the current Personal Information Protection Act in the AI context. Commissioner Lee pointed out, "The Personal Information Protection Act sets the consent of the data subject as a principle for processing personal information, but it is practically difficult to obtain consent from individual users during the process of collecting large amounts of data necessary for AI development." He added, "Efforts are needed to establish standards through various cases and specific discussions," and said, "The Personal Information Protection Commission is currently establishing six major guidelines, which are scheduled to be released early next month."

At the end of the lecture, Commissioner Lee said, "Since personal information is widely used in the legal tech field such as judgments and litigation documents, privacy protection issues seem to be more prominent," and added, "We will actively review pre-appropriateness review systems and strive to contribute to the development of the AI industry."

Commissioner Lee was commissioned as a prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office in 1998 and has served as a researcher at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, head of the 3rd Criminal Division at Busan Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, chief of Sangju District Prosecutors' Office, head of the 3rd Public Security Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, head of the Public Criminal Division at Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, head of the Public Security Division at Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, specialist at the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, deputy chief at Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office, and chief at Goyang District Prosecutors' Office. He opened a law practice as a lawyer in 2021 and joined Kim & Chang Law Office. Since March, he has been serving as a commissioner of the Personal Information Protection Commission. The Personal Information Protection Commission, launched in August 2020, is a collegiate central administrative agency that oversees South Korea's personal information protection policies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.