2.3.1

Purpose limitation

(39)
Personal data should be processed for a specific purpose and subsequently used only insofar as this is not incompatible with the purpose of processing. This data protection principle is guaranteed under Articles 15 and 16 of the APPI.
(40)
The APPI relies on the principle that a business operator has to specify the utilisation purpose "as explicitly as possible" (Article 15(1)) and is then bound by such purpose when processing the data.
(41)
In that respect, Article 15(2) of the APPI provides that the initial purpose must not be altered by the PIHBO "beyond the scope recognized reasonably relevant to the pre-altered utilization purpose", interpreted in the PPC Guidelines as corresponding to what can be objectively anticipated by the data subject based on "normal social conventions" (26).
(42)
Moreover, under Article 16(1) of the APPI, PIHBOs are prohibited from handling personal information beyond the "necessary scope to achieve a utilization purpose" specified under Article 15 without obtaining in advance a data subject's consent, unless one of the derogations in Article 16(3) applies (27).
(43)
When it comes to personal information acquired from another business operator, the PIHBO is, in principle, free to set a new utilisation purpose (28). In order to ensure that, in case of a transfer from the European Union, such a recipient is bound by the purpose for which the data was transferred, Supplementary Rule (3) requires that, in cases "where a [PIHBO] receives personal data from the EU based on an adequacy decision" or such an operator "receives from another [PIHBO] personal data previously transferred from the EU based on an adequacy decision" (onward sharing), the recipient has to "specify the purpose of utilising the said personal data within the scope of the utilisation purpose for which the data was originally or subsequently received". In other words, the rule ensures that in a transfer context the purpose specified pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 continues to determine the processing, and that a change of that purpose at any stage of the processing chain in Japan would require the consent of the EU data subject. While obtaining this consent requires the PIHBO to contact the data subject, where this is not possible the consequence is simply that the original purpose has to be maintained.