”Personal information leaked to China's Alipay” - KakaoPay investigation begins in South Korea

KakaoPay, a smartphone payment service provided by the Korean national app KakaoTalk, has provided 54.2 billion pieces of personal credit information from over 40 million customers to China's Alipay.
Police have launched an investigation into KakaoPay. Suseo Police Station in Seoul is investigating Shin Won-gu of KakaoPay, who is suspected of violating the Act on the Use and Protection of Credit Information.
Prior to this, the Financial Supervisory Service announced that KakaoPay had been trading without the consent of 40.45 million customers for over six years since April 2018.
In addition, the company announced that it was investigating allegations that it provided approximately 54.2 billion pieces of personal credit information, including Kakao account IDs, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and subscription and transaction histories, to China's Alipay.
After these facts became known, the Free Korea-Australia civic group reported Shin and others to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 16th of last month on suspicion of violating the law on the use and protection of credit information.
"If the Financial Supervisory Service had not conducted an investigation, the personal information of Korean citizens would have continued to be provided to China, a potential enemy country, without any protection.
"The government has consistently maintained that there is no problem," he said, adding, "We ask that a swift and thorough investigation be carried out and that severe punishment be imposed so that no more victims are created."
The prosecution handed the case over to the police on the 24th of last month. The police have begun an investigation and are planning to summon Shin as an accuser on the 9th of this month and begin their investigation.
In connection with this allegation, the Financial Supervisory Service has investigated not only KakaoPay, but also Naver Pay and Tospay.
We are currently investigating major payment agencies (PG Co., Ltd.) such as Kakao Pay.
The company explained that the provision of information this time constitutes "processing delegation" and does not require the consent of the user (customer) and that "it is not possible to identify the user."