Republic of Korea: Issued ruling against Kakao Mobility Corp. for Violations of Personal Information Protection Act

On 8 February 2023, the Korean Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) closed its investigation into Kakao Mobility Corp. and issued a fine of KRW 6 million for its violations of the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). PIPC opened the investigation on 17 October 2022. Kakao Mobility Corp. had forced users of its Kakao T app to consent to the transfer of personal information to a third party. For users that rejected this requirement, the taxi service was refused. By prohibiting the provision of existing services to users that did not give their optional consent to the data-sharing request, Kakao Mobility Corp. violated Article 22(5) of the PIPA. Along with the fine, PIPC issues improvement recommendations to Kakao Mobility Corp.