[News Today] Coupang changes ‘data exposure’ to ‘leak’

[LEAD]
Nearly two weeks after news broke of its massive data breach, Coupang has quietly changed its wording. The company has now replaced the term 'exposure' with 'leak'. This shift only came after mounting criticism and a formal request from the Personal Information Protection Commission. Still, on Coupang's main website, nothing has changed. There is still no apology, no notice, and no guidance for affected users.

[REPORT]
A notice posted on the customer service page of Coupang's website.

Up until Dec. 3, the company used the term 'personal information exposure', but now it has been changed to 'personal information leak'.

Coupang changed the wording at the request of the Personal Information Protection Commission about two weeks after posting the first notice of information leak on Nov. 20.

Han Min-soo / Democratic Party (Dec. 2)
Is this an exposure of personal information or a leak?

Park Dae-jun / CEO, Coupang (Dec. 2)
It's a personal information leak.

However, only the notice posted on the customer service page contains the word 'leak'.

There's neither apology nor any announcement on the main page of Coupang's website.

The company still hasn't complied with the Personal Information Protection Commission's request to inform its users of the leak on the front page of its website and post guidelines on how to prevent further damage.

It is also ignoring the government's demand to notify when or how it plans to respond.

Coupang consultant / (VOICE MODIFIED)
As the number one rule, we were told not to use the word ‘leak’ and use the word ‘exposure’ instead.

It will be difficult for Coupang to avoid criticism for trying to evade responsibility by using the term 'exposure' to make it appear as if customers' personal information was disclosed accidentally instead of the term 'leak', which implies loopholes in data management.

Kim Kyung-hwan / Lawyer
A penalty for simple exposure is lower or can be even exempted, whereas a penalty for data leak is much heavier.

Last November, Coupang added a clause to its terms and conditions saying it's not responsible for damage caused by the unauthorized access by a third party.

The retail giant claims the exemption clause is used widely, but major domestic e-commerce companies such as Naver and SSG.com do not have it in their terms of service.

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