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1. Kakao Privacy Policy

A privacy policy refers to guidelines a company complies with in order to ensure that users can use the service with confidence. Kakao adheres to the statutory laws and personal data protection regulations of the Republic of Korea applicable to data controllers and provides a privacy policy in compliance therewith.

Kakao “uses and provides the user’s personal information based on the user’s consent”.
Kakao strives to offer an easy-to-comprehend Privacy Policy in order to actively guarantee the user’s rights (the right to control one’s own personal information). As part of our efforts, we have used labels to highlight the important categories of our Privacy Policy.

※ Users can click the icons of the labels to find detailed information of each category.

Privacy Policy is applied to services offered by Kakao (hereinafter “Services”), including KakaoTalk and Daum. However, privacy policies created specifically for a certain Kakao Service will supercede the Kakao Privacy Policy.

2. Collection of Personal Information

Kakao collects the minimum personal information to provide the Services.

The following minimum personal information is collected when a user signs up for the Service or while the user uses the Services, through the home page, individual applications and programs, and etc.

The minimum necessary information for service provisioning is classified as obligatory, and the user's consent is solicited for its acquisition. Furthermore, supplementary data may be collected to provide tailored services. This supplementary data is categorized as optional and requires the user's consent. However, even in cases where consent is withheld for optional data, there shall be no restrictions on utilizing the service.

[Kakao Account]

[Required] Email, password, name (nickname), profile picture, list of friends, KakaoTalk phone number (only for KakaoTalk users), contacts, history of service usage, history of purchase/payment in the Service

[Optional] Date of birth, gender, shipping address information (name of recipient, shipping address, phone number)

[To sign up a business/organization Kakao Account]

[Required] Email, password, name of the business/organization, profile picture, friends list, contacts, history of service use, history of purchase/payment in the Service, representative’s verification information (name, date of birth, gender, ID, encrypted connecting information (CI), duplication information (DI), contact information (email address, mobile phone no), citizen/foreigner status), representative’s contact information (email, mobile phone number)

[To verify one's identity]

[Required] Name, gender, date of birth, mobile phone number, telecommunications service provider, citizen/foreigner, encrypted connecting information (CI), duplication information (DI))

[To consent of legal representative]

[Required] Information of legal representative(name, gender, date of birth, mobile phone number, telecommunications service provider, citizen/foreigner, encrypted connecting information (CI), duplication information (DI))

[To use paid-services]

[Required] Payment via credit card: (part of) credit card number, name of credit card company
[Required] Payment via mobile phone number: mobile phone number, approval number
[Required] Payment via account transfer: account holder's name, account number, name of bank
[Required] Payment via voucher: number of voucher, ID of the relevant website

[To process refund]

[Required] Bank, account number, account holder's name, email

[To issue cash receipt]

[Required] Mobile phone number, card number for cash receipt

[To process a customer inquiry]

Additional information may be required when processing an inquiry or consultation through Customer Service.

See personal information items to be additionally collected for customer service
The utilization of demographic characteristics, user interests, preferences, and inclinations to estimate tailored content recommendations and advertising; View Detailed List of Personal Information Collected by the Service The method to collect personal information is as follows.

In case of collecting personal information, Kakao informs the fact to a user in advance and asks for his/her consent. Personal information is collected via the following methods:

• The user agrees to the collection of personal information and enters relevant information when signing up for a service or while the user uses the Services
• Personal information is provided through affiliated services or groups.
• Personal information is provided via the home page, email, fax, phone, etc. during customer service calls.
• The user participates in online and/or offline events.

Information, including device information, IP address, cookie, and service usage history* are automatically generated and collected while using the Service.

* Service usage history is information that can be automatically recorded and/or collected in the Kakao server when information that is automatically generated during the use of the Service or entered by the user is transmitted or received. Such information may or may not be categorized as personal information, depending on whether the information is combined with other information or how it is processed.

Service usage history may include contents entered or shared by the user, keywords entered by the user, visit and access records, records of fraudulent use of the Service, and location information. For example, text, images, videos and voice files that are included in messages exchanged between users are transmitted to other users through the company server. At the same time, external information on how the user interacts with the other user, such as the recipient of the content, the data format and the posted date and time, is also recorded on the server. However, as a rule, Kakao does not use transmitted contents, including messages exchanged between users, for purposes other than transmission. Kakao can process information, including service usage history, for the purpose of providing the Service, and may, if needed, acquire additional consent from users to use the information.

Kakao receives the following personal information from the third parties, based upon partnership agreements or affiliation with other services. View Detailed List of Personal Information Provided

3. Use of Personal Information

Personal information is used to manage membership, to provide and improve Services and to develop new service.

• Member identification, confirmation of the user’s will to sign up, user and age verification
• Confirmation of consent of a legal representative in case of collecting personal information of children under 14 years of age, verification of identity of the legal representative thereafter
• Message transmission between friends, friend registration and suggestion
• Notification of activities to friends, user search & sign-up
• resolve inquiries or complaints, and deliver notices
• Send contents, etc. to the users of paid services, or shipping / payment
• Prevention and sanction of any act that interrupts normal service operation of the service
• The utilization of demographic characteristics, user interests, preferences, and inclinations to estimate tailored content recommendations and advertising;
• Voice-command processing and voice-recognition enhancing
• The establishment of a service environment conducive to new service creation, functional enhancements, personalized service provision, and privacy safeguarding;
• Statistics pertaining to service usage records, frequency of access, and service utilization

Additional personal information may be used or provided.

The personal information may be used or provided to a third party, without consent from the user and in accordance with related laws, to the extent that the information is collected and used for reasons related to the purpose of collection. At this time, collective consideration is made to whether the additional use and collection of personal information is related to the original purpose of collection, the circumstances of the collection or processing practices can lead to expectations of further use or provision of personal information, the collection and use unjustifiably impeded on the user's interests, and/or whether measures where taken to secure security, such as pseudonymization or encryption.

Kakao can pseudonymize the collected personal information in order to secure anonymity of the individual. This pseudonymized information can then be used for statistics, scientific research and public records. Pseudonymized information is saved and managed separately from the additional information, and necessary technical and operational measures are applied so that the information owner cannot be identified.
Only the minimum number of people are permitted to access pseudonymized information and access permissions are being managed. Security system is operated to protect pseudonymized information, internal audits are conducted regularly to confirm that information is properly pseudonymized and protected, and improvement measures are continuously applied. Employees who handle pseudonymized information are also provided with training on a regular basis.

View how pseudonymized information is used

4. Provision of Personal Information

Kakao does not provide personal information to any third party without your consent or unless demanded by applicable laws.

Kakao does not provide personal information to any third party without your consent or unless demanded by applicable laws. However, Kakao provides personal information to third parties within the scope necessary, only upon user’s prior consent, if a user uses Services such as a Kakao Account login service or an affiliated service.
Personal information may also be provided overseas, upon the user’s prior consent, in order to use an overseas service. Separate consent is also acquired by notifying users of the overseas entity and country the user’s personal information will be transferred to.

Instances of Kakao Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties

Kakao can provide necessary organizations with personal information without consent from the information owner in the event of a disaster, communicable disease, incidents or accidents that can lead to death or physical endangerment, and/or emergency situations that can lead to immediate financial loss.

Emergency situations where personal information is provided to a third party The following affairs are entrusted to provide the Services.

If needed for service provision, some personal information processing tasks may be entrusted to an external entity. Kakao manages and supervises whether the entrusted entity complies with laws and regulations on personal information protection by limiting the entrusted entity's processing of personal information to that necessary to execute the entrusted tasks, applying technical and administrative protective measures and restricting re-entrustment. Users may refuse overseas transfer of personal information through the Customer Center. If a user refuses to transfer personal information overseas, the use of services that require overseas transfer of personal information may be restricted.

Entrusted Parties for Personal Information Handling

5. Destruction of Personal Information

The user's personal information is to be destroyed immediately once the purpose of the collection and use of personal information is fulfilled. The procedure and method of destruction is as follows:

The method of destroying personal information that has to be destroyed because the purpose of collecting or using personal information has been achieved, or because the user has unsubscribed from the service, will be determined depending on the format of the personal information. Personal information stored in electronic file formats is to be deleted using technical means which make the information unrecoverable. Personal information printed on paper records, printed matters and documents is to be destroyed through shredding or incineration.

Any information that is destroyed after being stored for a certain period under the internal policies is as follows:

• 1)The following information is destroyed after being kept for the maximum one (1) year from the date of user’s withdrawal from the Service.
  • Kakao Account and email address to which a withdrawal notification is sent to correspond to CS inquires and to transmit announcements shall be encrypted and stored.
  • Improper usage records
• 2)Reports and records of rights infringement reports and sanctions will be retained for a period of five (5) years from the date of report receipt and subsequently discarded.
• 3)KakaoTogether: The following information is destroyed after being kept for three (3) years from the end date of project fundraising.(If the project is not selected, it will be destroyed after being kept for 90 days from the date of result announcement.)
  • Evidential documents collected while selecting support targets
• 4)Kakao Certificate: Once certificate use is discontinued, certificate use history will be stored and then destroyed ten (5) years after the certificate discontinuance date.
  • Name, date of birth, mobile phone number, gender, Encrypted connection information(CI), certificate data
• 5)KakaoTalk: Personal information collected under relaxed user protection measures will be destroyed after one year.
  • Encrypted user identification value (CI)
• 6)Credit card receipts: To be retained for one year after the member withdraws from the credit card receipt service before destruction.
  • Encrypted user connecting information (CI), credit card receipt item and details.

Moreover, Kakao adheres to operational policies that involve the separate storage or deletion of personal information of users who have not utilized the service for a duration of one (1) year. Separately stored personal information is retained for a period of four (4) years, after which it is promptly disposed of.

See the retention of personal information in accordance with applicable laws

6. Processing personal location information

Kakao handles personal information as described below in accordance with the Act on the Protection and Use of Location Information. Under Article 4 of the Kakao Location Information Usage Agreement, we may retain personal location information for the purpose of providing the service.

• The personal location information is immediately destroyed once the information has been used in and provided to location based services.
• The personal location information in user-created posting and contents which are in services that store location information is retained as long as the posting and/or content remains in the service.
• If needed, personal location information may be retain for a minimum amount of time to provide location-based services.

Personal location information is immediately destroyed once the purpose of collecting and using information has been achieved.

Once the information has been collected and used for its desired purpose, or the user has unsubscribed from the service, the personal location information is safely deleted so that it cannot be restored or reconstructed.
However, information is stored if laws and regulations prescribes justifiable reasons to store such information.

In accordance with the Act on the Protection and Use of Location Information, evidence that confirms the use and provision of user's personal information shall be stored in location information system for six (6) months.

Personal location information is not provided to a third party without the user's prior consent.

Kakao does not provide a user's personal location information to a third party without the user's prior consent. If the information is provided to a third party, the user is notified in advance of the information recipient, and the purpose of providing the information, and may consent to the provision of such information.

If personal location information is provided to a third party upon the user's consent, the recipient of the information, as well as the date and purpose of providing the information must be immediately notified to the user every time the information is provided.

View details of the provision of location information The custodian shall have the following rights if a custodian is needed to protect a child who is 8 years old or younger.

Pursuant to Article 26, Paragraph 1 of the Location Information Act, when a legal guardian gives consent for the use or provision of personal location information for the protection of the life or physical well-being of a child under the age of 8, a person under guardianship, or a user categorized as a person with disabilities under the Disability Welfare Act, such consent is considered to be provided by the individual concerned.

Guardians intending to exercise the aforementioned right must furnish the Company with written proof of guardianship and a signed consent document. In such cases, the guardian assumes all rights of the user as prescribed in the Location Information Usage Agreement.

For more comprehensive details pertaining to the handling of personal location information, kindly consult the Kakao Location Information Usage Agreement.

7. Rights of Users & Legal Representatives and Exercising Those Rights

Users may possess the following rights regarding the handling of their personal information:

• The right to request access to personal information;
• The right to request rectification of personal information;
• The right to request suspension of personal information processing;
• The right to request deletion of personal information and to withdraw consent or terminate membership

Users can directly exercise their rights such as the viewing (inquiry) of personal information at any time through the following functions within the service, or make a request through the Customer Service (Contact Us).

- View (inquire) and edit Kakao Account information;
- Manage services related to Kakao Account; or
- Check the status of the collection and use of personal information and provision thereof to third parties related to the use or Kakao services.

When Kakao receives a user's request regarding the above matters, Kakao will take necessary measures without delay. If a user requests for the revision of incorrect personal information, such information shall not be used or provided until the revision is completed.

When processing the personal information of a child under 14, obtaining consent from his/her legal guardian is mandatory. The legal guardian holds the authority to access, modify, delete, suspend processing, and withdraw consent on behalf of the child.

To secure the legal guardian's consent, minimal information, such as the legal guardian's name and contact details, might be solicited from the child.

• Verifying the legal guardian's identity via their mobile phone authentication
• Providing a written consent form to the legal guardian for endorsement and submission
• Furthermore, equivalent means to those mentioned above might be employed to communicate the specifics of the consent to the legal guardian and ascertain their intention to provide consent.

In addition, Kakao also provides a page containing information on the user’s right protection in accordance with the Privacy Guidelines for Online Customized Ads.

See introduction/rejection of customized ads

8. Matters Concerning Automatic Personal Information Collection Device (InstallationㆍOperation and Refusal)

Cookies can be used to provide the web-based services.

Cookies are used to support a faster and more convenient use of websites and to provide customized services.

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a small piece of text file usually set by the web server, sent from a website and stored in a User's computer hard disk while the user is browsing that website.

Purpose of use

Kakao uses cookies which save and retrieve user information in order to provide personal customized service. When a user visits the website, the website server reads cookies stored on the user's device to maintain environment settings and customized services. Cookies help the user use the website easily and conveniently by finding out the user's preferences. Also, they are used to provide customized marketing information by tracing the number of visiting to the website and use patterns.

Rejection of cookies

The user has the option to install cookies. They can go to the top of the web browser, click "Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data" and decide whether to block or allow cookies. when a user rejects the storage of a cookie, then the user may have some difficulties in using a service.

Allow/block cookies on a web browser

• Chrome : More Settings on the web browser > Privacy and security > Delete browsing data
• Edge : Settings > Cookies and site permissions > Manage and delete cookies and site data

Allow/block cookies on a mobile browser

• Chrome : Settings on the mobile browser > Privacy and security > Delete browsing data
• Safari : Settings on your mobile device > Safari > Advanced > Block all cookies
• Samsung Internet : Settings on the mobile browser > Personal browsing data > Delete browsing data

9. Actions Taken to Protect Personal Information

Kakao works hard to protect our users' precious personal information.

• Users' personal information is encrypted.

  Users' personal information is transmitted through encrypted communication channels, and important information, including passwords, are encrypted when stored.

• Personal information is protected from hacking attempts and computer viruses.

  Systems are installed in areas restricted from external factors to prevent users' personal information from being leaked or damaged by hacking or computer viruses. A 24-hour monitoring system has been installed to detect and block any hacking attempts, and vaccine programs are being used to protect the system from the latest malware and viruses. Kakao is also continuously researching new security and anti-hacking technologies and applying the new technologies to our services.

• Personal information is handled by minimum personnel. Risk of personal information breach is minimized by assigning only a necessary handful of people to handle users' personal information.

  We limit the number of employees involved in personal information processing to a minimum. Furthermore, we have established systematic criteria for generating and changing passwords for the personal information processing system and those for access authorization and have conducted ongoing audits.

• We conduct regular training for personnel responsible for personal information handling, focusing on user privacy protection.

  We implement periodic education and campaigns on privacy obligations and security for all personnel engaged in personal information processing.

• Documents and auxiliary storage media that contains pseudonymized information is stored in a locked and safe space.

• Kakao meets national and international certification standards on user information protection activities and systems.

  Kakao is verified annually by an independent auditing organization to ensure that we meet national and international certification standards on information protection and privacy management. The result of the audit is applied to any improvements needed.
  See more about information protection certification

• Kakao implements various activities to protect users' personal information.

  Kakao operates a personal information management system that is based on Privacy by Design, and offers guidelines to ensure that users of all ages, including seniors, children and youth, can easily understand Kakao's Privacy Policy. In addition, Kakao users are provided a wide range of information, including information about Kakao's privacy protection organization and news and trends on domestic and international privacy-related policies through Kakao's Privacy Brunch Story. More information is available on the Kakao Privacy Website.

Kakao complies with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and the laws and regulations of the European Union states (hereinafter the “GDPR”).

The following may apply when Kakao provides services to users in EU countries.

[Purpose/Basis of Personal Information Processing]

Kakao uses personal information collected from users only for purposes specified in "3. Use of Personal Information", informs users prior to any use thereof and asks for agreement. In addition, Kakao may process personal information in accordance with applicable laws including GDPR in any of the following cases:

• Consent of the data subject
• Sign and fulfil a contract with the data subject
• legal compliance
• When personal information processing is necessary for the material benefit of the data subject
• For the pursuit of legitimate interests of the company (except for cases where the benefits, rights or freedom of the data subject is more important than that of the company.)

[Guarantee of Users' Rights in EU Countries]

In accordance with applicable laws including GDPR, a user may request that his or her personal information be transferred to another manager, and refuse the processing of his or her information. In addition, a user has a right to file a complaint with data privacy protection authorities.
Kakao may also use personal information for marketing purposes such as event promotion or advertisements, for which Kakao obtains a prior agreement. A user may withdraw the agreement at any time if he or she doesn't want it.
A user may inquire the foregoing matters to the Customer Service via document, phone or email. The request will be handled in a proper and timely manner.
When a user requests for the correction of personal information, the concerned information shall not be displayed until such correction is completed.

10. Privacy Protection Officer and Responsible Department

Kakao has designated the Privacy Protection Officer and a department responsible for responding to user inquiries regarding personal information and resolving related complaints. Privacy Protection Officer and Responsible Department

• Person in charge: Yeonjea Kim (Privacy Protection Officer/DPO/Location Information Manager)
• Department: Privacy Protection Part
• Contact
  - Kakao Customer Service (Link) : 1577-3754 (Charged)

If you have any inquiries, complaints, or suggestions about personal information protection, please contact us using the information provided. We will promptly review your concerns and provide a response.

Please make inquiries to the following organizations if you need to report or consult in regards to the violation of personal information.

11. Amendment to the Privacy Policy

Kakao may amend its Privacy Policy to reflect any legal or service changes. Kakao shall notify such amendment in advance, and the amended Privacy Policy shall take effect seven (7) days after the foregoing notification.
However, in the case of substantial changes to user rights, we will inform you with a minimum of thirty (30) days' notice.

Kakao always entreasures users' information, and continues to exert its utmost efforts for users to use our Service more safely.

• Notification Date: November 12, 2024
• Enforcement Date: November 19, 2024

See past privacy policies Previous Privacy Policies List