KakaoTalk submitted chat logs to government, pledges to stop after users protest

(Update on October 20): A Daum Kakao representative has stated that KakaoTalk only hands over user data at the request of legal court warrants:

While it’s true KakaoTalk had responded to the legal court warrants that were issued by the prosecutors/court following proper procedures by providing the demanded information, we never provided our users chat logs to the authorities without proper, legal documentation. Also, they were provided only when and upon delivery of warrant, so ‘on a weekly basis’ would be a false statement […] When we did deliver the requested info upon presentation of a proper warrant, we provided just the minimal data that remained on our servers (chat records are stored in our servers in average of a week to ensure seamless integration between multi-devices). Considering it takes 2 to 3 days for search warrants to be issued, the data provided was limited.

For better or for worse, Korea is one of the world’s most connected nations, with about 85 percent of their population on the internet as of last year. Local KakaoTalk users – who make up three-quarters of the almost 50 million monthly active users – recently found out the downside when the government announced a crackdown on online defamation.

This was in light of the discovery of what President Park Geun-hye termed as rumors spreading on the chat app that “divided the society”, according to StarTribune.

Daum Kakao – a newly merged firm between Daum and Kakao – had initially complied with the authorities, providing the communication logs of users on a weekly basis. What followed was a spike in interest in alternative chat apps. According to research firm Rankey, 610,000 KakaoTalk users visited messaging app competitor Telegram last Wednesday, which then became the most downloaded free app in the local iOS app store.

Following that, Daum Kakao CEO Lee Sirgoo has chosen to take a step back, and stated that the company will no longer comply with eavesdropping warrants, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Here’s what he reportedly said during a parliamentary hearing on 16 October:

In order to administer wiretapping warrants according to the law, it is necessary for us to have eavesdropping equipment and provide data. But we cannot do that. We have no real-time monitoring capability, and we are unwilling to do that, either.

See: Daum and Kakao merge, massive valuation puts them head-to-head with Naver-Line