The Personal Information Protection Commission held an on-site meeting in Daegu on the 24th at the Daegu pseudonymized information support center with AI robotics companies from Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.
Vice Chairperson Lee Jeong-ryeol attended, along with Data Safety Policy Division Director Won Se-yeon, officials from the Korea Internet & Security Agency, Daegu Digital Innovation Promotion Agency President Min Jeong-gi, and representatives from local companies, for a total of 20 participants. It was a meeting the commission held by leaving its Seoul headquarters and visiting the region directly, with 20 people gathered around the table.
Local companies raised four issues. They asked for revisions to allow the use of original data, for simplification of pseudonymization and data linkage procedures, for an environment where artificial intelligence technologies can be tested, and for case-based guidelines. The common thread beneath these requests was a complaint that the data needed to train robots is not circulating locally.
Rather than answers, the commission laid out tools. It shared consulting support for the use of pseudonymized information and plans for leading case studies in data linkage, and introduced infrastructure such as an online and offline pseudonymized information support platform, a one-stop support center, a Personal Information Innovation Zone, and designated data linkage specialist institutions. It also explained the non-action opinion system, under which companies can ask in advance whether a specific data-handling method would run afoul of the law.
The significance of this meeting lies in its location. To restructure a growth model concentrated in the greater Seoul area, the government has adopted a “5 mega-regions, 3 special zones” strategy that groups the country into five ultra-wide regions and three special self-governing provinces, and Daegu has been assigned the role of an “AI and robotics capital” within that framework.
Putting up a sign is one thing; becoming a capital is another. If data for training robots does not flow in the region, the title of capital will remain a slogan. That is why the commission went to Daegu rather than staying in Seoul.
The fact that a pseudonymized information support center is located in Daegu is itself a signal. Data infrastructure, once concentrated entirely in Seoul, has begun to spread to the regions, and Daegu is one of those hubs.
Still, as the meeting made clear, having a hub and having that hub function are still two different matters.
The four demands raised by local companies were less about regulatory complaints and more about the practical conditions for balanced regional development: allowing local firms to start on the same track as competitors in the Seoul metropolitan area.
The path forward depends on how the Daegu pseudonymized information support center is used. If the center remains a one-off consultation window, the tools offered by the commission will end up trapped in a Seoul headquarters briefing book.
A structure is needed in which, if a Daegu company runs into trouble with data linkage procedures, the center connects it to a data linkage specialist institution; if a business cannot move forward because there is no precedent, the center guides it as if handling the application for a non-action opinion; and if there is a shortage of testbed space, the center links the Personal Information Innovation Zone with the region. When a regional hub functions as this kind of connector, the meeting’s tools are translated into measurable results for Daegu’s industries.
There was also a call for the region itself to directly demand guidelines that reflect Daegu’s specific circumstances.
The robotics industry involves a complex mix of video, voice, and behavioral data, so the limits of generic guidance on pseudonymized information were reaffirmed at this meeting.
If Daegu is to call itself an “AI and robotics capital,” it will need to design regionally tailored linkage models and test scenarios that match the actual types of data local companies face.
The first benchmark for whether Daegu is truly establishing itself as a regional pole within the 5-mega-regions, 3-special-zones framework will be how far these four issues have progressed six months from now.