UK signs data pact with South Korea – POLITICO

The UK has today reached an agreement in principle with South Korea to allow the free flow of personal data between the two countries.

The agreement, called a « data adequacy decision », is the UK’s first since it took control of its own data policy after leaving the European Union.

“Our new deal will open up more digital commerce to boost UK businesses and enable more vital research that can improve the lives of people across the country,” said UK Data Minister Julia Lopez.

Data-fueled trade between London and Seoul is already over £1bn, and the deal should be a boon for companies with significant operations in both countries, such as electronics company Samsung and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. .

The South Korea deal is the first of 10 that London has earmarked now that it can make its own international data flow deals. It has also targeted Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Dubai International Financial Centre, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Singapore and the United States for similar deals.

UK officials have previously said they aim to speed up the process of concluding data pacts with other countries now that the country is outside the EU, which currently has a total of 14 international data pacts on its books. .