South Korea has became the fifth member economy to join the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (“APEC”) Cross-Border Privacy Rules (“CBPR”) system, a voluntary but legally enforceable code of conduct that aims to facilitate secure data transfers and e-commerce between parties to the agreement.

Established in 2011, the CBPR system aims to provide a minimum level of protection for personal information exchanged among member economies as e-commerce continues to boom. It helps mitigate privacy concerns led by the ever-increasing flow of personal data across borders and build consumer trust by ensuring that data is processed in compliance with the CBPR’s high security standards without restricting data flows.  Countries and businesses that took part in the multilateral system agree to implement APEC’s nine privacy principles, which include, for example, preventing harm, notice, collection limitation, integrity, and accountability, in all cases involving the transfer or processing of personal information.
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