Concerns grow over AliExpress data leak
AliExpress Korea is mired in suspicions of leaking Korean customers’ personal data, sparking calls for the government to step up its oversight over the Chinese e-commerce firm to level the playing field for its Korean counterparts, according to industrial officials Tuesday.
The company has become a target of the Fair Trade Commission and the Personal Information Protection Commission’s joint investigation into the allegations the firm faces.
Customers here have to accept a string of sensitive clauses regarding personal data and their transfer to create an account for AliExpress. One strangely-worded clause says, “Your private information can be provided to a third party without any consent if the measure is deemed necessary for the sake of the interest of their lives, bodies and property.”
The company does not specify what constitutes a third party, so some worry that the company may make ill use of Korean consumers’ personal information by leaking it to Chinese authorities.
Chinese laws say the country’s individuals or organizations should fully support its national intelligence activities.
Industry officials and market watchers urged the Korean authorities to take concrete action to protect Korean consumers’ private information, before AliExpress becomes a bigger e-commerce player in Korea.
“First and foremost, Korea’s watchdogs should closely monitor and track such possible acts conducted by the Chinese e-commerce firm,” Jung Ji-hyun, secretary general at the Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations, said. “AliExpress, for its part, is urged to make sure that it strictly abides by local private information protection acts.”
She called for the need to toughen monitoring of Chinese firms, at a time when consumer worries are growing.
“Other overseas platform firms — such as Google — have relatively safer internal monitoring systems, even if they follow their [countries’] laws, but this is not the case for Chinese firms.”
AliExpress Korea was supposed to hold a press conference on Tuesday, but the company abruptly canceled it without giving a reason. This has cast doubts that the firm is moving to turn low key amid intensifying pressure from Korean watchdogs.
Retail industry officials also expressed similar concern and demanded that Korean authorities take stern measures to ensure that overseas platform firms engage in fair competition with local counterparts.
“We are aware that regulating foreign platform firms is realistically a time-consuming task, but the authorities should heighten vigilance toward them not just for the protection of local customers, but for the establishment of fair competition grounds here,” an official from a local retail firm said.
Another official from a homegrown retailer also urged the government to enhance their supervisory role on foreign firms.
“Antitrust watchdogs and relevant authorities focus more on supervising online open markets amid growing fears of fake or unsafe products being distributed rapidly by certain e-commerce platforms, as this is crucial for the protection of customers,” the official said.