The European Union has concluded that Seoul’s privacy protection is in compliance with its General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR), setting to motion a process that would allow data to flow free from the bloc of 27 nations to South Korea.
The assessment came following adequacy talks that wrapped on Tuesday. The EU has concluded that South Korea's laws and regulations provide the same level of data protection as the GDPR, considered the toughest privacy and security law in the world. So far, only 12 countries have received this recognition.
The European Commission will now advance with procedures to adopt the adequacy decision regarding South Korea, which is expected to be finalized this year.
Based on reciprocity, South Korea will revise its laws to facilitate the transfer of local data to EU member countries.
Just last year, U.S. firms Google and Amazon were fined 200 million euros for violating the GDPR by collecting cookies or browsing history without user consent to enable customized advertising.