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“Kim Beom seok said not to do it”… signs that Coupang’s personal data protection team was bypassed | [단독] “김범석이 하지 말라 해”…쿠팡 개인정보 보호팀 ‘패싱’ 정황

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“Kim Beom seok said not to do it”… signs that Coupang’s personal data protection team was bypassed | [단독] “김범석이 하지 말라 해”…쿠팡 개인정보 보호팀 ‘패싱’ 정황

As Coupang expanded its business around 2019 to 2020, signs have emerged that it engaged in illegal practices under instructions from Kim Beom seok, chairman of Coupang Inc, the US based parent company of Coupang. These included skipping security and personal data protection impact assessments or concealing data flows between systems that could become problematic during investigations by financial regulators.

According to Signal messenger conversations exchanged in January 2019 between a former Coupang chief privacy officer, an American identified as Mr G, and Eric Renn, then head of fulfillment and logistics engineering, obtained by the Hankyoreh on the 18th, Coupang appears to have launched its personal vehicle delivery service Coupang Flex in August 2018 without conducting reviews related to security and personal data protection regulations.

In the messages, Mr G raised the issue, saying “You know this should obviously have gone through a security and personal data protection review.” Eric Renn responded, “Bom told us not to,” using Kim’s English name. Mr G pushed back, saying, “He probably said ‘do it fast and cheap.’ But isn’t this about handling the personal and personally identifiable information of customers and Coupang Flex workers?” However, Eric Renn drew a clear line, replying, “Bom told us not to involve your team.” Under Chairman Kim’s decision, the internal information security organization that Mr G belonged to was effectively bypassed.

In the second half of 2018, Coupang recruited applicants for Coupang Flex, which allows people to deliver Rocket Delivery orders using their own vehicles, without any separate verification process. Applicants only had to submit items such as their name, mobile phone number, desired delivery area, and whether they could use their own car. In return, they were given apartment and villa entrance door passcodes within their assigned areas. Concerns were raised that the personal information shared this way could be abused for criminal purposes.

Another sign was found that, during inspections by the Financial Supervisory Service related to Coupang’s fintech business, data feeds that posed a risk of financial accidents were concealed under Chairman Kim’s instructions. In July 2020, Mr G reported via messenger to a person believed to be Alberto Fonaró, then chief financial officer, that “there are non compliant and illegal data feeds connecting the fintech system operated in house to the Coupang data platform team’s data warehouse, the central repository.” This referred to problems in the data linkage structure that automatically and continuously connected Coupang Pay’s electronic financial system with the Coupang data platform. Mr G added, “This data feed has never once gone through the legally required security and personal data protection review.” Coupang had established its fintech subsidiary Coupang Pay in April 2020 to handle payment services, and this issue appears to have been discovered belatedly during the process of fully separating the systems.

However, these issues were not flagged during the Financial Supervisory Service inspection. Mr G explained that this was because “Kiro, Gyeong In tae, then CEO of Coupang Pay, deleted this data feed while the inspection was underway,” adding that “Kiro reportedly told several people that ‘Bom instructed him to do this.’” This can be interpreted as Coupang intentionally concealing evidence that could cause controversy during the inspection. The Financial Supervisory Service is currently conducting on site checks of Coupang Pay and separately reviewing risks in its payment system.

In response, Coupang stated, “The message is presumed to be a conversation between a former executive who was dismissed from Coupang and a third party. The individuals mentioned are no longer with the company, making it impossible to verify the facts of the matter.”

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