Song Kyung-hee, chair of the Personal Information Protection Commission, is moving ahead in earnest with on-site visits related to personal information. The commission declared 2026 the first year of a major shift to a preventive personal information protection system and is changing its policy focus from post-incident sanctions to prevention.

The commission said it launched the field visits to inform target groups of its key policy directions, communicate directly and help new systems take root quickly on the ground.

Song's first field visit of the new year began on the 13th with a visit to the Korea Social Security Information Service in Seoul's Gwangjin district. The agency operates public systems that manage citizens' personal information related to social welfare or medical services, including Haengbok-eum and Bokjiro. Song visited a War Room that constantly monitors prevention of disruptions in public systems and cybersecurity among private medical institutions. She checked whether personal information is managed safely, including access rights and access-log management, and then encouraged staff.

Song also held a meeting with chief privacy officers from public agencies including the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Pension Service, the National Health Insurance Service and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. The commission plans to require agency heads to take responsibility from 2026 to establish a company-wide personal information management system centered on the CEO and the CPO, and to revise related rules to strengthen the CPO's role and authority.

Song said, "As large-scale leakage incidents continue to occur in the private sector, public agencies that collect sensitive personal information under laws and regulations are also not exceptions to leakage incidents." She said, "Public agencies need to take the lead by heightening vigilance about personal information leaks, promoting proactive investment in personal information protection, and shifting to a structure in which the personal information protection system works in practice."

Song said she plans to continue efforts to select four main themes, listen to views from the field and reflect them in personal information protection policy so that the meeting does not end as a one-off event.

Specifically, the commission will continue a relay of field visits on topics including innovation in public-agency protection systems, a leap toward a safe AX and data era based on trust, activating safety nets in daily life that citizens can feel, resolving uncertainty in industrial sites, on-site inspections of large-scale personal information processors. In the first quarter, it plans to visit sites focusing on detailed topics such as safe data use in autonomous driving and robotics, stronger personal information management in education, and protection of CCTV video information.