Certain provisions of the APPI, notably Articles 27 to 30 relating to individual rights, apply only to a specific category of personal data, namely "retained personal data". Those are defined under Article 2(7) of the APPI as personal data other than those which are either (i) "prescribed by cabinet order as likely to harm the public or other interests if their presence or absence is made known"; or (ii) "set to be deleted within a period of no longer than one year that is prescribed by cabinet order".

The second category has been further specified in Article 5 of the Cabinet Order. Read in conjunction with Article 2(7) of the APPI, it exempts from the scope of the notion of retained personal data, and thus from the individual rights under the APPI, those personal data that are "set to be deleted" within a period of six months. The PPC has explained that this exemption aims at incentivising business operators to retain and process data for the shortest period possible. However, this would mean that EU data subjects would not be able to benefit from important rights for no other reason than the duration of the retention of their data by the concerned business operator.

In order to address this situation, Supplementary Rule (2) requires that personal data transferred from the European Union "be handled as retained personal data within the meaning of Article 2, paragraph 7 of the Act, irrespective of the period within which it is set to be deleted". Hence, the retention period will have no bearing on the rights afforded to EU data subjects.

It results from those provisions, as also confirmed by the PPC, that the process of rendering personal information "anonymous" does not need to be technically irreversible. Pursuant to Article 36(2) of the APPI, business operators handling "anonymously processed personal information" are merely required to prevent re-identification by taking measures to ensure the security of "the descriptions etc. and individual identification codes deleted from personal information used to produce the anonymously processed information, and information relating to a processing method carried out".

To address that situation, the Supplementary Rules provide for additional requirements applicable only to personal data transferred from the European Union under this Decision. According to Rule (5) of the Supplementary Rules, such personal information shall only be considered "anonymously processed personal information" within the meaning of the APPI "if the personal information handling business operator takes measures that make the de-identification of the individual irreversible for anyone, including by deleting processing method etc. related information". The latter has been specified in the Supplementary Rules as information relating to descriptions and individual identification codes which were deleted from personal information used to produce "anonymously processed personal information", as well as information relating to a processing method applied while deleting these descriptions and individual identification codes. In other terms, the Supplementary Rules require the business operator producing "anonymously processed personal information" to destroy the "key" permitting re-identification of the data. This means that personal data originating from the European Union will fall under the APPI provisions regarding "anonymously processed personal information" only in cases where they would likewise be considered anonymous information under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (22).

According to Article 19 of the APPI, PIHBOs are required to "strive […] to delete the personal data without delay when such utilisation has become unnecessary". That provision needs to be read in conjunction with Article 16(1) of the APPI prohibiting the handling of personal information beyond "the necessary scope to achieve a utilisation purpose". Once the utilisation purpose has been achieved, processing of personal information cannot be considered necessary anymore and, hence, cannot continue (unless the PIHBO obtains the data subject's consent to do so).

Third, pursuant to Article 30(1) and (2) of the APPI a data subject has a right to request from a PIHBO to discontinue using personal information, or to delete such information, when it is handled in violation of Article 16 (regarding purpose limitation) or has been improperly acquired in violation of Article 17 of the APPI (regarding acquisition by deceit, other improper means or, in case of sensitive data, without consent). Likewise, under Article 30(3) and (4) of the APPI, the individual has a right to request from the PIHBO to cease the provision of the information to a third party where this would violate the provisions of Article 23(1) or Article 24 of the APPI (regarding third party provision, including international transfers).