Coupang Responds to Claims of Personal Data Leakage to China: "Completely Untrue"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Coupang denied claims that its customer information is managed by a subsidiary in China, stating that the allegations are "completely untrue."

On the 26th, Yang Jeong-sook, an independent member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee, revealed that Coupang transfers and stores personal information and location data held in the Coupang application (app) to its subsidiary in China, 'Hallim Network (Shanghai/Beijing) Co., Ltd.'

According to Representative Yang, the Coupang app collects sensitive personal information upon membership registration, including name, date of birth, contact number, email, as well as address, nickname, bank account number, password, and childbirth information.

In particular, Representative Yang argued that since Chinese authorities can access the information at any time under local personal information protection laws, there is a significant risk of data leakage.

Yang stated, "Not only very sensitive information of our citizens but also the most critical data for the data economy could fall outside our control and be transferred to China."

However, Coupang issued a statement on the same day, saying, "Coupang's customer information is stored in Korea," and "No personal information is transferred to or stored in China."

They added, "Hallim Network is an affiliate of Coupang, a company where global IT talents are responsible for development tasks," and "The claim that customer data is stored through this company is completely false."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.