According to Art. 32 of the Credit Information Act, the credit information provider/user should obtain the prior consent of the customer in writing or by other reliable means each time it provides to a third party or uses personal credit information (including any personally identifiable information) of a customer. When the credit information provider/user obtains consent to the provision (i.e. sharing) and utilisation of personal credit information, it should notify the customer of: the recipient of the information; the purpose of provision; the content of information; the duration of maintenance; and use by the recipient. Furthermore, a separate explanation to the customer is required with respect to the mandatory items of personal data that must be provided for the provision of the services and other optional items of personal data, and consent must be obtained. In such cases, as to the mandatory items, the credit information provider/user must explain their relevance to the service provision. Art. 32 requires the credit information provider/user to notify the customer that they may opt not to consent to the provision of any optional data that may be collected.
The Act established that financial institutions are required to obtain consent of individuals only if the use of personal information "conflict[s] with the original purpose of the collection." Thus, under this regime, a financial institution may "entrust" personal information to a third party but may not "supply" it. Supplying and entrusting are terms of art under the Act. "Supplying" means transferring personal information for the transferee's own purpose, whereas "entrusting" means transferring personal information to a third party to help carry out the purpose of the original data collection.

Per Art. 27 of Act on the Development of Cloud Computing and Protection of Its Users, generally, "no cloud computing service provider shall provide any user information to a third party or use user information for any purpose other than for the purpose of providing services, without the relevant user's consent." This conditional flow regime has been in place since 2015.

Korea has entered into an agreement entailing binding commitments to facilitate cross-border data transfers. Art. 14.14 of the Free Trade Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Government of the Republic of Singapore, as amended by the Digital Partnership Agreement between the two governments, stipulates that neither party shall prohibit or restrict the transfer of information by electronic means, including personal data, where such transfers are necessary for the business operations of a covered person.

The Personal Information Protection Act, which was enacted in 2011 and recently amended in 2020, provides a comprehensive framework for data protection in Korea.

Per Art. 41 of the Enforcement Decree of Protection of Communications Secrets Act, telecoms or internet infrastructure operators should retain for 12 months the following:
- the date of the telecommunication, the commencement time and end time of the telecommunication, the communications number of outgoing and incoming calls, the frequency of use, and the location data for 12 months (six months in case of long-distance calls and local call services); and
- the log records of users and the location data for three months.
This requirement has been in place since the Act's enactment in 1994.

The Telecommunications Business Act regulates licenses for network equipment and creates rules for the fair use of telecom facilities. Per Art. 8, foreign corporations cannot operate facilities-based telecom business in the country. Foreign ownership is allowed only up to 49% of the stock.

Under the Telecommunications Business Act, telecommunications businesses are divided into two categories: namely, facilities-based telecommunications services (FTS) and value-added telecommunications services (VATS). FTS refers to businesses that install telecommunications line equipment and facilities and provide telecom services. VATS are online services using the FTS network, such as cloud computing services, email, e-commerce platforms, and internet search engines. Since 2009, the Act has prohibited foreigners from owning more than 49% of the stock of a telecom enterprise when it comes to FTS (Art. 8).

Korea does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, accounting separation is required in certain cases: According to the Telecommunications Business Act, accounting is mandated for facilities-based telecommunications business operators who possess telecommunication service equipment and whose telecommunications service turnover of the preceding year exceeds 30 billion won (approx. 22.5 million USD), and for facilities-based telecommunications business operators who do not possess telecommunication service equipment and whose telecommunications service turnover of the preceding year exceeds 80 billion won (approx. 60.2 million USD).

Korea has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that the Korea Communications Commission, the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Under Art. 18, the Telecommunications Business Act 2010, foreign investors must obtain authorisation for acquisitions or mergers of facilities-based telecommunications services providers.

The Electronic Financial Supervisory Regulations mandate that financial services using cloud services for credit information and unique identification details (such as resident registration numbers, driver’s licence numbers, passport numbers, and alien registration numbers) must process this data locally (Art. 14.2). Financial companies and electronic financial business operators are required to use cloud systems located in Korea to process personal credit information and unique identification information. This provision was inserted as part of an amendment in December of 2018.

In order to provide Internet multimedia broadcasting services, approval of the Broadcasting and the Communication Committee is required under the Internet Multimedia Broadcasting Business Act. This regime under Art. 4 has been in place since 2008.

Per Art. 5 of the Act on the Protection, Use, Etc. of Location Information, any person who intends to engage in location information business shall obtain permission from the Korea Communications Commission. Even if permitted to do such business, location information providers or location-based service providers cannot collect the location information of individuals without the individual's consent under Art. 18. These restrictions have been in place since 2005.
It is reported that, although a supplier may export location information once acquiring a permit, Korea has never approved such a permit despite numerous applications by foreign suppliers over the past decade.

Commercial presence is not required to provide cross-border services under the Commercial Act and the Enforcement Decree of Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. However, it is reported that "Korea prohibits foreign satellite service providers from selling services (e.g., transmission capacity) directly to end-users without going through a company established in Korea. Given existing investment restrictions, this prohibition significantly restricts the ability of foreign satellite service suppliers to compete in the Korean market".