Update at the Global Privacy Assembly: Korea's PIPC signs joint declaration of cooperation with France's CNIL

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        Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) signed a joint declaration of cooperation in the Global Privacy Assembly held in Istanbul on Oct 25-26. The PIPC intends to cooperate with France's CNIL (in charge of privacy protection in France) to carry out joint research for new technologies, share best practices and experiences, organize joint training workshops, and exchange agents. Aside from France, the PIPC's representative also discussed potential cooperation in privacy protection and enforcement with representatives of data privacy agencies of California, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the Philippines. The PIPC also discussed with Germany's BfDI on Korea's possible inclusion into the Berlin Group, which is an international body focusing on data protection in telecommunications. Overall, this development shows Korea's growing integration and advancements into privacy protection laws, both on a domestic and international level. 

        The Global Privacy Assembly (GPA) is also one of many international cooperation frameworks that have emerged focusing on privacy and data protection: other examples include the Asia Pacific Privacy Forum (APPA), Global Privacy Enforcement Network(GPEN), and OECD's Working Party on Security and Privacy in the Digital Economy (SPDE). Other countries are similarly taking steps to harmonize privacy laws internally as well: for instance, the Offices overseeing privacy protection in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between themselves and Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) on May 10 this year. The goal of this agreement was to promote greater collaboration on private sector privacy issues, for which the three provinces have slightly differing provincial laws. Previously, there had already been collaborative work between the OPC and provincial privacy authorities through MOUs specific to those investigations, such as the investigations into Clearview AI. 

        These developments demonstrate not only that Privacy Law is growing in development and enforcement internationally, but also that organizations are working to harmonize the laws for greater ease of application and enforcement.