China’s Temu to send S. Korean users’ personal data to third-party companies

New privacy terms by Chinese e-commerce platform Temu will require South Korean users to agree to transfer their personal data to third-party companies in the country, its new policy showed Friday.

The updated privacy terms, which go into effect the same day, will have users consent to providing their personal customs clearance codes, transaction amounts, addresses, phone numbers, device information and data usage, among others, to its partners in South Korea.

The development comes amid heightened concern in South Korea about the data collection practices of Chinese chatbot DeepSeek. Earlier this week the government said it has suspended new downloads of the DeepSeek app in South Korea until remedies are made.

The collected data is entrusted to 27 companies in six countries — South Korea, the United States, Singapore, Japan, Australia and Indonesia, which are in charge of disposing the service users’ data.

“The scope of third companies provided with user data has been expanded in line with the plan to widen local-to-local service in South Korea, but the list of personal data sent to them has not changed,” a Temu official said.

Last year, South Korea’s data protection regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), launched an investigation into data collection and usage by Chinese e-commerce platforms, including AliExpress and Temu, amid privacy violation concerns.

While the regulator imposed a fine of about 1.9 billion won (US$1.32 million) on AliExpress, it postponed a decision on Temu due to a lack of data on its business practices in South Korea.

A PIPC official said the investigation into Temu is in its final stage and the results will be out shortly.