Chinese e-commerce platform Temu will require South Korean users to agree to transfer their personal data to third-party companies in the country. The updated privacy terms go into effect the same day. The development comes amid heightened concern in South Korea about the data collection practices of Chinese chatbot DeepSeek. The collected data is entrusted to 27 companies in six countries — South Korea, the United States, Singapore, Japan, Australia and Indonesia, which are in charge of disposing the service users’ data. The data protection regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), launched an investigation into data collection and usage by Chinese e- commerce platforms, including AliExpress and Temu, amid privacy violation concerns. The investigation into Temu is in its final stage and the results will be out shortly, a PIPC official said. The regulator imposed a fine of about 1.9 billion won (US$1.32 million) on AliExpress, but it postponed a decision on Temu due to a lack of data on its business practices in South Korean.
