Korea rules elementary school principals, not admin chiefs, are data protection officers

The government legislation ministry said Wednesday that elementary school principals, not their administrative office chiefs, must serve as the schools' personal information protection officers, settling a question raised by a teachers' union over how the privacy law applies to schools.

The ministry's interpretation responds to a request from the Busan Teachers' Labor Union, case number 26-0527, and was published on Oct. 13. It turns on the meaning of "the person who oversees the administrative affairs of the school" in Article 32, paragraph 2, item 1, sub-item (sa) of the enforcement decree of the Personal Information Protection Act, which implements Article 31, paragraph 1 of the law.

The ministry concluded that "oversees" means holding jurisdiction over all of a school's affairs and bearing supervisory responsibility, rather than merely handling administrative work. It drew the distinction from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which assigns separate roles to principals and administrative staff: Article 20, paragraph 1, states that the principal oversees school affairs and directs and supervises school employees, while paragraph 5 says administrative staff handle the school's administrative work.

The ministry also pointed to the practical consequences of naming an administrative office chief. Such an official has no authority to direct or supervise teachers, the ministry said, which would make it unreasonable to have that person manage and supervise the handling of teachers' personal information. Article 20-3 of the education act obliges schools and their heads to protect teachers' phone numbers, resident registration numbers and other personal information, and treating the principal as the protection officer fits that framework, the ministry said.

The decree leaves an exception. It calls for designating the person who oversees the school's administrative affairs in principle, but where Article 32, paragraph 3, item 2 applies, it requires appointing a member of the school staff instead.