[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Temu, the Chinese e-commerce platform that has announced its direct entry into the South Korean market, has come under scrutiny for collecting a large amount of personal data from local sellers, including ID card photos, device data, and location information.
According to the retail industry on Wednesday, Temu revealed a new seller privacy policy on April 4, which stated that it automatically collects various data from Korean sellers, including device data, service usage information, and location data.
Device data includes information about the model and operating system of the device used by the seller to access the service, language settings, and unique identifiers. Service usage data also includes details such as the pages visited by the seller, the duration of their visits, whether they opened emails, and whether they clicked on links within those emails. Additionally, location data such as the seller's IP address is automatically collected.
Moreover, personal information about sellers collected in Korea is directly stored on Temu's servers in the United States. The data collected includes not only usage data but also ID card photos, phone numbers, emails, and transaction amounts. Temu explained that "if personal information is required for business purposes, it will be transmitted via a secure network" and that "if sellers refuse to allow data transfer abroad, they will not be able to use the service."
알파경제 Kim Jisun (stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
