Daegu digital agency opens innovation zone for pseudonymised data

The Personal Information Protection Commission said Friday that the Privacy Innovation Zone at the Daegu Digital Innovation Promotion Agency has begun full operations, giving researchers and companies in AI robotics and healthcare a space to work with pseudonymised data under relaxed safeguards.

The zone, introduced in 2024, lets users handle data more freely than in ordinary research facilities by tightening security around it, with multi-factor authentication and real-time screen recording, the commission said. Inside, users can process pseudonymised data at a lower standard than elsewhere, draw on a wider range of combination keys, store pseudonymised information for extended periods to support continuing and repeated research, and allow third parties to reuse it.

Daegu's agency was provisionally designated in April and finalised as an operating institution after securing a data analysis space, upgrading its systems and networks, and passing an on-site inspection and follow-up review by the commission. It already runs a support centre for pseudonymised data use, one of seven nationwide, in Seoul, Gangwon, Busan, Daejeon, Incheon, Daegu and North Jeolla Province.

Daegu plans to concentrate on data in AI robotics and healthcare, the fields the government has identified as central to its "AI robot capital" goal.

The zone is currently operated by 10 designated institutions, among them the National Data Agency, the National Cancer Center, the Korea Social Security Information Service, Douzone Bizon, the Korea Expressway Corporation, the Korea Education and Research Information Service and the Gwangju Technopark. The National Tax Service and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency are preparing to begin operations.

The commission said it will support data linkage and sharing among zone operators through a connection hub scheduled for a pilot run in November 2026, and will hold a public contest in the first quarter of 2027 to expand the programme.