Nine out of 10 South Koreans see personal data protection as important, but dedicated privacy staff averaged 0.29 people at public institutions and 0.34 at private companies, a survey showed.

The Personal Information Protection Commission on Thursday released results of its 2025 survey on personal data protection and use and shared the figures.

The survey showed that 81.1 percent of adults and 90.4 percent of teenagers said AI technology using personal data affects daily life.

By contrast, 37.4 percent of adults and 38.5 percent of teenagers said they know data subject rights such as access to personal data, correction or deletion, and a halt to processing. Both adults and teenagers showed relatively low awareness of their rights compared with how important they consider personal data protection. Some 54.4 percent of adults and 47.7 percent of teenagers said they check the details of consent for processing personal data when using services. Both groups showed an upward trend in saying they check those consent details.

Awareness of the Right to be Forgotten programme for children and teenagers was relatively low at 31.6 percent among adults and 25.3 percent among teenagers. Still, 70.1 percent of teenagers said they are willing to use the service. The application of AI technology using personal data accounted for just 1.6 percent of all public institutions. Among private companies with 300 or more employees, 1.2 percent were found to apply AI technology using personal data.

As implementation measures for safe personal data management, public institutions most commonly cited internal management plans, access rights management and encryption, while private companies more often cited malware prevention and physical protection measures. Both public institutions and private companies showed a continued decline in responses saying there are no separate measures to secure safety.

Dedicated privacy staff averaged 0.29 people at public institutions and 0.34 at private companies, showing limited staffing overall. The share saying they face difficulties in protecting personal data was 35.1 percent at public institutions and 23.4 percent at private companies with 300 or more employees. The commission explained that the difficulty rate has generally been declining, showing an improving trend overall. As a policy most urgently needed for personal data protection, demand was high in both the public and private sectors for promoting policies that consider both personal data protection and use.

Seo Jeong-a (서정아), director general for planning and coordination at the commission, said public awareness of personal data protection is high, but understanding of exercising data subject rights and staffing conditions in the field are insufficient. She said the commission will continue strengthening policies to bolster the foundation for personal data protection and enable safe use in response to the spread of AI.