Only 6.6 percent of Korea's public agencies earned the highest grade in a nationwide assessment of personal information protection, the country's privacy watchdog said.
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) announced the results of the "2025 Public Agency Personal Information Protection Assessment" on Thursday, covering a total of 1,442 public institutions including central government ministries, local governments and public enterprises. A total of 54 agencies received the highest grade in the assessment.
The overall average score came in at 76.5 points. By grade, 342 agencies received a B grade, the largest group. By institution type, public enterprises and quasi-governmental agencies posted the highest average score at 87.5 points, while basic local governments scored an average of just 73.2 points, showing the weakest personal information protection levels.
Agencies receiving the top grade included central ministries such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, along with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.
The public agency personal information protection assessment is a system introduced in 2024 to strengthen the personal information management framework in the public sector and enhance execution capabilities. Each agency first conducts a self-assessment to verify compliance with legal obligations, followed by an in-depth evaluation by an expert panel to determine a composite score. The final score reflects additional points for achievements in safe use of personal information and deductions for data breaches and incidents.
The PIPC plans to link the results to government performance evaluations and to present awards and commendations to outstanding agencies and officials on Personal Information Protection Day. The commission will also publish a best-practice casebook to promote exemplary cases more widely.
For agencies receiving insufficient grades, the PIPC will issue improvement recommendations and closely monitor compliance. The commission will also actively provide tailored consulting to raise overall protection levels across public agencies. Among the 90 agencies that participated in consulting during this assessment, more than half (47, or 52.2 percent) achieved higher grades, and participating agencies' average score rose by 9.6 points from the previous year.
"The protection level assessment is a system designed to lead public agencies, which handle the precious personal information of citizens, to proactively establish safety management frameworks and strengthen accountability," PIPC Chairperson Song Kyung-hee said. "We will spread the preventive practices of top-performing agencies across the entire public sector and provide intensive consulting to underperforming agencies to close the protection gap between public institutions."
