August

Important changes to the privacy rules in Japan now affect the ways in which companies handle personal information, particularly with respect to disclosures to third parties, international transfers, and the collection and use of sensitive personal information.
 
The changes are the result of amendments made to Japan's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) in 2015, which are intended to enhance the protection of personal information, with a view to making such protections comparable to those provided by EU law, and promote effective and broader use of personal information by introducing new systems such as those for "anonymously processed information”.

In May, Singapore's privacy commissioner sanctioned two companies for failing to take reasonable security measures to protect the personal data of their customers in extremely low tech ways.
 
The Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission issued enforcement measures on a furniture store and an Asia-Pacific Star Private Ltd. (APS) for mishandling paper receipts that contained customer personal information. Both companies violated section 24 of the Personal Data Protection Act of 2012, which places on organizations an obligation to make reasonable security arrangements to protect the personal data in its possession or under its control and to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risks.

The Korea Communications Commission will launch the Online Privacy Protection Regulation System, beginning with a pilot study targeted at the online retail, search engines, gaming, broadcasting and Telecommunications industries.
 
The study will involve 66 companies that will have to self-diagnose their operations through checklists provided by the KCC. The KCC will then prepare customized checklists for the games, portals and pay-tv industries by the end of this year.
 
Kyoung Yeon Kim, Partner at Yulchon LLC, said, "A self-regulatory regime seems to be inevitable now, considering the enormous number of players in the market and comparatively limited government resources to monitor and regulate each and every one of their activities”.