Consumer Group: "Ali and Temu Should Be Punished for Unfair Personal Data Collection"

A consumer group that filed a complaint with the police against Chinese e-commerce companies AliExpress (Ali) and Temu has called for the prevention of their unfair collection of personal information.

Park Soon-jang, Secretary General of the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, is making a statement as he appears at the Cyber Investigation Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 7th to undergo a complainant investigation.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The civic group Consumer Sovereignty Citizens' Assembly stated around 2 p.m. on the 7th in front of the annex of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno-gu, Seoul, before the complainant investigation, that "Ali and Temu use Korean consumers as tools for collecting personal information by baiting them with low-priced products."

They criticized, "Ali and Temu require consent to comprehensive personal information collection in order to purchase products, thereby collecting more information than necessary for their business purpose of e-commerce," and added, "The use of personal information based on consent beyond the user's intention is clear."

Furthermore, they argued, "All collection, use, and transfer of personal information to third countries based on consent obtained through unfair and illegal methods are invalid and constitute illegal acts, and should be punished under Korea's Personal Information Protection Act and other laws."

Finally, they demanded, "Stop collecting private information unrelated to product purchases and disclose the company's personal information management status."

The Consumer Sovereignty Citizens' Assembly filed a complaint against Ali and Temu on the 25th of last month with the Jongno Police Station in Seoul for violating the Personal Information Protection Act and the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. The police transferred the case to the Cyber Investigation Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and conducted the complainant investigation on the same day.

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