Kakao Map Controversy Over Personal Information Leakage

The Personal Information Protection Committee announced on the 15th January that it requested Kakao to convert all existing Kakao Map favorites folders to private in connection with the controversy regarding the leakage of Kakao Map personal information.

In Kakao Map, the default setting of the user's favorite folder is PUBLIC, so personal information in the folder is disclosed to other people unless you set it to be private. In this regard, it was pointed out that the name and location of military units were revealed, and personal information was leaked because the address of family homes and dating places between lovers were publicly posted on favorites.

The Personal Information Commission said, "Up to now, Kakao has set the default setting when creating a Kakao Map favorites folder from PUBLIC to PRIVATE, but this is why Kakao Map users create a new favorite folder

It only applies to the last name," he said. "There is a problem that personal information is infringed because the contents of the previously created favorite folder are still public."

The Personal Information Committee said, "In response to this, Kakao agreed to change the contents of the previously created favorite folder to private from today by accepting the request from the Personal Information Committee." Committee spokesperson said, "We plan to inspect if any violations are found."

In fact, all existing account folders will be kept private at the request of the government. 

All platforms using personal sensitive information such as blockchain platforms, the attention is required too.