Sirgoo-Lee’s Speech/Apology on KakaoTalk
Sirgoo-Lee has delivered what appears to be an apology-slash-official policy stance on user security, which by default is also a speech on user privacy. This is a significant moment for KakaoTalk the app, and IMO it’s a good thing that Daum Kakao is taking time to address this component of closed networked communications through instant messengers. I was particularly struck by Sirgoo’s openness about the failure of foresight on his part. That’s not easy to admit.
People often deride KakaoTalk as a communication channel for teens and kids, with little serious technical functionality for adults: It’s a instant messenger with incredibly funky and dorky stickers (how serious would you take your boss if you found out this was his kkt theme); it allows you to stream your latest and favorite kpop songs through KakaoMusic; and it allows you to friend trendy brands or large companies such as The FaceShop and Lotte which then can send advertisements and content packaged as personal messages.
And yet, KakaoTalk is also an instant messenger that nearly 90% of smartphone users in Korea have installed and are also consistent users of. In my own research on KakaoTalk, it wasn't the functionality nor the digital affordances of the instant messenger that lead to the adoption and continued use of KakaoTalk, but the determinants of adoption came from the sheer saturation of adopters from one’s personal social network. People often don’t realize that why people adopt particular technologies has actually nothing to do with the technological artifacts (the “things”) themselves.
As I’ve said, I don’t subscribed to the “mass exodus” theory of KakaoTalk to Telegram. That’s too simplistic of a narrative to tell. And as I’ve written before, the complexities of one’s chosen channel of communications should take into consideration a variety of audiences and topics. That necessarily means we as users of mobile technologies have created a virtual “United Nations” of communication applications, but one where there is not interoperability between services. I am a KakaoTalk user, as well as a Line user, and often a WeChat user, but being anyone one of these doesn’t necessarily negate the usefulness of the other. In the world of instant messaging, one app doesn’t dominate others; they are used in conjunction with our communicative goals and practices. Sure, Korean users are downloading Telegram, but it’s wrong to frame multiplexity of instant-messaging use as zero-sum. Technology adoption is certainly a lot more complicated than it being simply a “yes/no” proposition.
Here’s to a big learning opportunity for Daum Kakao:
“Thank you for coming here on such short notice. I’d like to say in this opportunity to our users that we are deeply sorry for what has happened. It was largely due to my ignorance and inexperience in the matter of data privacy. I thought, rather arrogantly, complying with laws and regulations while trying to strengthen data security with technical means would be all that it takes to protect our users’ privacy. I apologize again that I didn’t realize the real concerns of our KakaoTalk users early on.
In order not to make the same mistake again, we at Daum Kakao will institute a strict policy to put personal privacy over any other issues. More specifically, we will introduce measures as follows:
First, we have not responded to the government’s warrant to submit more conversation data since October 7 and won’t do so ever from now on. Second, we will soon form an information protection advisory council consisting of external experts to establish internal procedures to answer to search warrants without either violating the law or infringing on the user’s personal privacy. In addition, we will discuss with government agencies to create procedures for notifying users when there are instances of personal information breach in the process of complying with search warrants, no matter how small the disclosure is.
Third, Daum Kakao will publish transparency reports regularly, with the first issue to be available by this year’s end. Fourth, I’d like to tell you what we will improve in terms of personal privacy protection:
(1) Already, we have shortened the number of days KakaoTalk dialogs are stored in our servers to 2–3 days from 5–7 days. All the data stored in the servers will be encrypted within the end of this year.
(2) We will soon introduce the privacy mode in the KakaoTalk service. Under the privacy mode, all conversations will be encrypted and all incoming messages will be evaporated once viewed by the user without being stored in the server. Under this mode, we will make sure it is impossible to extract conversation threads from the server by introducing the end-to-end encryption technology that allows the smartphone terminal to store the encryption key.
The one-on-one conversation room and group discussion room will be supported with the privacy mode within the first and second quarter of next year, respectively. The feature not allowing messages already viewed to be stored in the server will be available in the third quarter next year. If there is anything else that we feel needs to be improved, we will do so immediately.
KakaoTalk has grown by leaps and bounds based on the trust of our users. I am fully aware that it takes our utmost effort to gain back the user trust. With the recent incident as a painful lesson, we will try to change ourselves fundamentally and become the world’s best company in protecting users’ privacy. We will take privacy more seriously than anything else. We are truly sorry for our users for what has happened for the past few weeks.
