By Kim Tae-jong
The National Human Rights Commission said Friday that Kakao, the creator of the country’s No. 1 smartphone app and messenger Kakao Talk, has infringed on individuals’ right by forcing users to offer “unnecessary” personal information.
The human rights watchdog also recommended the Korea Communications Commission look into information collecting practices of Kakao and other companies, which it claims could violate communications laws, and come up with proper guidelines to regulate them.
The decision is seen as a warning against similar prevalent practices, in which companies compulsively collect customers’ personal information online without giving users the opportunity to choose whether they want to share the information.
The recommendation came as Kakao recently asked its 25 million users to submit their email addresses in the name of verifiying their accounts and launched a new advertisement service called “Plus Friends.”
“Kakao Talk is available in real phone number-based format, but the company has additionally collected users’ email addresses in the name of account verification,” an official from the NHRC said. “It is a violation of the law that allows companies to only collect personal information to a minimum level.”
The company threatened to cancel users’ accounts or stop the messenger service if they did not provide their email address, which consequently violated individuals’ rights to selectively share their personal information, she said.
It is believed that the additional email address collection was a pre-step for the launch of Plus Friends, a new profit model for Kakao. Users can add one of the sponsor companies such as Lotte Department Store, Auction, CJ E&M and Ticket Monster as their “friend” and receive relevant or exclusive content.
But the human rights watchdog said the new service also infringes upon users’ rights by only allowing them to opt out of the service after compulsively subscribing it to it first.
Upon recommendations, the communications commission said it will launch an investigation into Kakao.
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