[News Today] KAKAOPAY FINED FOR DATA TRANSFERS

[LEAD]
The Personal Information Protection Commission has imposed a fine of approximately 6 billion won on KakaoPay for illegally transferring the personal data of 40 million subscribers to Alipay without authorization. This data was subsequently processed by Alipay and ultimately handed over to Apple, which has also been fined 2.4 billion won.

[REPORT]
KakaoPay, which marked its 10th anniversary last year, now has more than forty million subscribers.

The Personal Information Protection Commission decided to impose a fine of 5.9 billion won, roughly 4.1 million U.S. dollars, on KakaoPay for providing personal information of 40 million users to Alipay over a period of roughly six years from April of 2018.

The number of illegaly provided pieces of personal data amounted to some 54 billion.

KakaoPay transferred to Alipay encrypted mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and account balances.

Alipay processed the information and delivered them to Apple.

KakaoPay has been Apple's in-platform payment method since 2019.

Apple had collected the information to assess individual users' capability to pay for small purchases and other services, according to the commission.

The PIPC's findings show that KakaoPay had given personal information of users who had not registered Apple Pay as their payment method.

Jeon Seung-jae/ Personal Information Protection Commission
KakaoPay transmitted the information of over 80% of its users who had nothing to do with Apple Pay. Users, the owners of the private information, are unlikely
to figure out such misuse.

The commission decided to slap Apple with 2.4 billion won in fines for not informing users about the matter even after receiving personal data from Alipay.

Alipay was also ordered to dispose of the materials related to KakaoPay subscriber information.