"Your information was not leaked"... Coupang's 'self-investigation' compensation plan sparks controversy again

\r\n
[Financial News] Coupang offered a purchase voucher worth 50,000 won per person as compensation for a large-scale personal information leak, but it is creating further controversy by limiting the eligibility based on its own standards. Since it is the result of a ‘self-investigation’ released before the official government investigation was concluded, the meaning is that it cannot be trusted even if classified as a customer whose information was not leaked.
According to a comprehensive report by Financial News on the 18th, Coupang began providing vouchers worth 50,000 won per person, including △Coupang 5,000 won △Coupang Eats 5,000 won △Coupang Travel 20,000 won △Allux 20,000 won, to approximately 33.7 million people who were notified of a personal information leak on the 15th, while excluding those whose personal information was not leaked from compensation based on the results of its own investigation.
In fact, some Coupang user accounts have a notice written, ‘Please be assured that your personal information in this account has not been leaked. Purchase vouchers are only provided to customers whose personal information was leaked.’
However, the response from users is cold. Critical posts are constantly being posted on social media (SNS) and online communities.
Mr. Kim (59), who lives in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, wrote, "I can't believe the announcement that my personal information was not leaked. The government is conducting an official investigation and there are no clear results, so Coupang's arbitrary criteria for classifying victims of the leak are questionable." He added, "It's hard to understand that they only announce, 'Your information was not leaked, so we will not give you a membership.' They should at least provide reasonable grounds for not having had it leaked."
There are also criticisms that their response is different from other companies that have previously experienced hacking incidents. Another college student in his 20s, Mr. Kim, a resident of Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, said, "SK Telecom and KT exempted cancellation fees not only for hacking victims but also for all customers who wanted it," and added, "It is completely unreliable to reduce the damage level from 33 million to 3,000 and then select those eligible for compensation."
Coupang announced the results of its own investigation on the 25th of last month that a former employee who leaked customer personal information had accessed information on 33 million customers, but only stored 3,000 accounts.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Science and ICT refuted the claim, saying, "We are thoroughly investigating the type and scale of the information leak, as well as the circumstances of the leak, but the allegations made by Coupang have not been confirmed by the public-private joint investigation team." The Personal Information Protection Commission also demanded the immediate suspension of the notice, saying, "It not only misleads the public into misunderstanding the situation, but also makes it difficult to determine the exact details of the leak and the extent of the damage," and "There is concern that distorted information may cause confusion among the public."
Experts also expressed the opinion that it is difficult to completely trust the internal investigation and that the scope of the leak could be wider. Professor Park Chun-sik of the Department of Intelligence Information Protection at Seoul Women's University said, "Coupang's claim that only 3,000 accounts were leaked is suspicious. The damage could be greater since it is usually considered a breach with just access." He also said, "It is unknown how many more copies exist. Since this is a highly unusual and lacking objectivity internal investigation, we must wait for the announcement from the joint public-private investigation team."
Regardless of whether there was a leak or not, there is also criticism that the measure itself of excluding some customers from compensation is inappropriate. Professor Lee Eun-hee of Inha University's Department of Consumer Studies said, "When providing compensation, you should prevent further complaints, but it is worse to not do it at all." She added, "It is an attitude that does not respect consumers to make a selection based on difficult-to-understand standards after making a mistake before the official investigation results are out."
psh@fnnews.com Park Sung-hyun and Choi Hye-rim Reporter