The Personal Information Protection Commission said on April 27 that 54 institutions, or 6.6 percent, received the top grade in its 2025 assessment of personal data protection levels covering 1,442 public bodies including central government ministries, local governments and public corporations. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and the Ministry of Health and Welfare were among those that earned the highest grade.

The average total score was 76.5 points. A total of 342 institutions received a B grade, the largest group at 41.8 percent. By type, public corporations and quasi-government institutions scored highest on average at 87.5 points, while basic local governments scored lowest at 73.2 points.

The commission plans to link the results to government performance evaluations. It also plans to award citations and prizes to high-performing institutions and staff on Personal Data Protection Day and publish a collection of best practices. For underperforming institutions, it will issue recommendations for improvement and conduct implementation checks. The commission plans to support public bodies in raising protection levels through tailored consulting.

Song Kyung-hee (송경희), chair of the commission, said the assessment is designed to help public institutions that handle citizens' personal data build proactive safety management systems and strengthen accountability in the public sector. She said the commission will expand proactive prevention practices from top-performing institutions across the public sector and provide intensive consulting to institutions that need it to narrow gaps in protection levels.