Kakao takes 'no leak' argument to South Korea's high court in privacy appeal
By Jenny Lee ( September 3, 2026, 09:38 GMT | Insight) -- Kakao told the Seoul High Court on Thursday that personal information at the center of a 2023 KakaoTalk open-chat incident was never actually leaked from its systems, challenging the basis for a 15.1 billion won ($11.1 million) privacy fine. The company argued that hackers created the identifying information by combining separate identifiers outside Kakao’s control, while the privacy regulator said a leak does not depend on the technical route by which information reaches a third party. Kakao also challenged findings that its security safeguards were inadequate.Kakao told the Seoul High Court on Thursday that personal information at the center of the 2023 KakaoTalk open-chat incident was never actually leaked from its systems, opening its appeal against the privacy regulator's 15.1 billion won ($11.1 million today) fine by challenging the finding that a data leak occurred at all....
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