Kakao Comprehensive Terms and Conditions has expired as of Oct 1, 2022 due to the termination of a connection between a Daum ID and a Kakao Account.

Welcome to Kakao

Thank you for using Kakao services. Kakao provides diverse Internet and mobile-based services (applications). The following comprehensive terms of service (the “Terms of Service”) are applicable to all Kakao services provided by Kakao Corp. (“Kakao”) based on your Kakao account (each a “Service” and, collectively, “Service”) in order to provide you with more accessible and user-friendly services. The Terms of Service will help you with your use of the Services, so please read them carefully.

  • Kakao Service refers to the services (1)provided under the brand of Kakao (ex. KakaoTalk) or (2)associated with Kakao Account (ex. Brunch), and shall not include any service that uses the Daum brand.

Various Kakao Services are available to you.

Kakao offers many kinds of Services that you can enjoy on the Internet or through your mobile devices, such as a social networking service, bulletin board system service, online contents service, and location-based service. You may use Services by downloading a Kakao software application from your smartphone application store or by installing the Kakao program on your personal computer. As Kakao offers diverse number of Services, the content of Services may frequently change, and the details thereof will be notified to you separately for each Service. We ask for your understanding in this regard, and please feel free to view the detailed instructions for use of each Service that will be made available through the application store, the Q&A center for each Service, and the applicable guidelines and notifications.

Kakao hereby grants you a personal, worldwide, non-assignable, non-exclusive and royalty-free license necessary for your use of Services. However, please be reminded that Kakao does not grant you a right to use the Kakao trademarks, service marks, logos, branding or names.

In order to improve the level of Services, Kakao may update the software required for use of Services. Kakao may add important functionalities or remove insignificant functionalities through such software updates. Please update your software regularly so that you can enjoy Services to the fullest extent possible.

In order to provide you with a better service, Kakao may send you various notifications, messages and other advertising materials and information related to your use of Services by notifying you directly in the Services or by sending an email to you. If you encounter any errors in the system while using the Services, please contact the Kakao Customer Center.

If you choose to connect to a 4G/LTE network provided by your carrier when using Kakao Services, please note that you may be charged additional data fees by your carrier. You’ll be responsible for any additional data charges incurred when using Kakao Services. Please contact your carrier for further inquiries regarding your data plans.

You may use Kakao account.

A Kakao Account is a login account which is needed for you to be able to use Services. A Kakao account may be mandatory for use of some Services. You may create your own Kakao Account once you agree to the Terms and Conditions, register information required to create a Kakao Account, and obtain an approval from Kakao after its verification of information you have provided.

Kakao may not approve of your account creation if: (i) Kakao deleted your Kakao account in the past in accordance with this Terms and Conditions, (ii) you have attempted to create a Kakao account using a third party’s name, email address or other personal information, or (iii) you fail to provide the required information or provide false information during the Kakao account creation process. Especially, if you are under 14 years of age, your parent or legal guardian’s consent must be obtained to create your Kakao account. If it is found that you have created your Kakao account in breach of the foregoing terms and conditions, Kakao may suspend your use of Services or delete your Kakao account immediately.

Your Kakao account is personal to you and non-transferable, and you may not permit any third party to use your Kakao account. You are responsible for safeguarding the password that you use to access Services to prevent any improper use of your Kakao account without your consent. The Company may require you to enter a password and go through an additional user identification process to prevent others from accessing your Kakao Account without authorization. If you become aware that your Kakao account is being used by a third party without your consent, please contact the Kakao Customer Center, and Kakao will provide you with assistance to protect your Kakao account.

You may review and change your information using the setting menu in the Services. However, you may not be able to change some information like your Kakao Account, phone number, device identification number, and other user identification information required for us to provide and manage Services, and in case such information is changed, an additional user identification process may be required. If there are any changes to the information you provided at the time of joining the Services, please reflect such changes directly to Services or notify Kakao of such changes through the Kakao Customer Center by email. Kakao will not be liable for any disadvantage caused by your failure to notify Kakao of changes.

You can receive and use KakaoCon.

KakaoCon refers to loyalty programs rewarded by Kakao during your use of individual services (under Article 4. Definition in Kakao Account Terms and Conditions). If you fulfill the conditions proposed by Kakao while using particular services via your Kakao Account, Kakao may reward KakaoCon to your Kakao Account according to the established policy.

You can enjoy Kakao services and benefits using KakaoCon based on conditions and procedures set by Kakao. However, Kakao shall not guarantee or assume liability for the safety and legitimacy of any service provided by partners or third parties other than Kakao. The burden of risk thereon shall be in principle carried by a user who has agreed to the use of such service.

Kakao services and benefits usable via KakaoCon may be subject to frequent changes depending on Kakao's policy and partnership with third parties. Kakao shall not guarantee the permanent usability of KakaoCon.

KakaoCon has no value of property; Kakao shall not provide an exchange or refund in cash for KakaoCon, and you shall be unable to perform any act of money exchanges or paid transactions.

Kakao may, if necessary, take a certain measure according to its policy to operate individual services and support effective use of KakaoCon, such as adjustment, restriction or extinction of part or all of KakaoCon.

Any details on the provision and use of KakaoCon shall be governed by the Operation Policy separately set by Kakao, and Kakao shall guide you through the Customer Center Help page.

Please pay particular attention to the following.

You can freely use the Kakao Service bridging between you and a broader world, which makes our work even worthwhile. However, we ask you not to forget that you are not allowed to take advantage of the Kakao Service improperly.

For example, you shall be unable to impede the Kakao Service provision improperly or access the Service using a method other than what Kakao allows. Also, you shall be prohibited from collecting, using, or providing to others the information of other Kakao users; transmitting commercial information or taking advantage of the Service to generate profits against a recipient's explicit refusal or without his/her unambiguous consent; circulating pornographic information or infringing on third parties' copyright; sending or posting false facts about Kakao or third parties.

If users report other users while using a Service that offers voice chat features, Kakao may save and store the reported user's voice data. Such data shall only be retained by Kakao. Kakao may view this data only to settle disputes between users and resolve complaints, and a third party may view this data only when granted authority to do so by law. Kakao shall store this data for three (3) years from the date the report was submitted, then destroy the data in order to prevent fraudulent use and for management purposes. However, the reported voice data may not be saved in the case of low-end devices.

If you fail to comply with applicable laws, the Terms of Service and/or other policies of Kakao, Kakao may conduct an investigation into the non-compliance, delete or temporarily delete the relevant post, or suspend your use of Services either temporarily or permanently. If you adversely affect the provision of Services or severely interfere with the stable operation of Services by causing malfunction of equipment or by destroying or creating disorder in the system, the Company may restrict you from using your account. However, you can appeal through Customer Service if you are dissatisfied with the imposed restriction. Kakao has the right to destroy or store your personal information separately if your account has been inactive for the period specified in relevant laws. Kakao will notify you via effective channels, including email, SMS or KakaoTalk messages, before deleting or storing your information. Please note that this may result in the lack of required information and lead to the termination of the Terms of Service. Please refer to the Kakao Operation Policy for more information on your use of Services, including activities that are prohibited during Service use, restrictions that follow such violations and Kakao Services' policies on dormant accounts.

Please refer to the Kakao Operation Policy for more information on your use of Services.

Kakao manages posts in accordance with applicable laws.

Where the postings are in breach of the Act on the Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc. (hereinafter "the Act on Information and Communications Network"), the Copyright Act, and any other governing laws and/or regulations, the legitimate holder of right may request suspension and deletion of such postings, and Kakao shall take necessary actions in accordance with applicable laws. Furthermore, even without any request from the legitimate holder of right, Kakao may take any tentative measures against such posting pursuant to applicable laws if there exists anything that may be deemed to constitute infringement of a third party’s rights, and/or in breach of Kakao's policies and governing laws. Detailed processes related to such measures shall follow the procedures specified by Kakao under "Report Rights Infringement" within the extent set forth by the Act on Information and Communications Network and the Copyright Act.

Kakao protects your personal information.

Safe handling of your personal information is very important to us. Kakao will use your personal information only within the purpose and scope for which your consent is given to us to ensure seamless provision of Services. Unless otherwise required by the relevant laws and regulations or consented by you, Kakao will never disclose your personal information to a third party. Please refer to the Kakao’s Privacy Policy for information on the efforts made by Kakao to protect your personal information.

Kakao protects the copyright of content.

Kakao respects your intellectual property rights. You may provide content such as photos, text, information, comments or proposals, by posting them on Services, and you retain all intellectual property rights in and to such content.

Kakao believes that your content has useful information and that it is very important to ensure that such content is accessed by legitimate means and process. If you post any content on Services, the content may be exposed to Kakao services, and you will be deemed to have granted to Kakao and its partners a worldwide and permanent license to use, store, copy, modify, publicly transmit, display and distribute such content within the required extent.
In this case, Kakao complies with copyright laws, and you can take action to delete the concerning content or make it private through Customer Service or administration function provided in the Service; provided, however, that some posts may be unable to delete due to service or content properties. For the avoidance of doubt, the rights granted to Kakao and its partners under such license will be used only for the purposes of the operation, improvement and promotion of Services and the development of new Kakao services.

Some Services may offer ways to access and remove the content that you have provided to such Services. Also, for certain Services, there are settings that can limit the scope of Kakao’s use of the content submitted through such Services. You can find more information about how Kakao uses and stores your content in the Kakao Privacy Policy or you can contact the Q&A Center for each Service.

You should have acquired all legal rights necessary for you to be able to grant a license to Kakao to use the content you provided to Kakao, and you may not disclose or post any content that is pornographic or violates public order, laws or good morals.

If Kakao determines that the content you have provided violates relevant laws or Kakao’s policies, Kakao may remove, delete or refuse to post such content; however, Kakao does not have an obligation to review or edit any content. If you believe that your right has been infringed, you may get help from the Kakao Customer Center for the relevant Service.

Services may include content that is not owned by Kakao. In such case, the individual who has provided such content will solely be liable for such content. Your use of Services does not grant you any right to the content provided by other users. To use other users’ content made available through Services, you must separately obtain the permission from the owner thereof.

Kakao provides a better location-based service.

With an aim to provide more convenient and useful services to you, Kakao may include location-based service in Services. The location-based service of Kakao is a free service based on your location data received from a location information provider, which collects your location data from your mobile device. More specifically, such location-based service consists of: (i) a place-sharing service where you may share your current location or any particular location with other users or prepare postings related thereto; (ii) an information provision service through which you can search your local information or be provided with advertisement information using your current location; (iii) a content-sharing service whereby you may share your content with your friends using your location data that is recorded with your photos or other content or otherwise combined with such content. Particularly, for a minor under the age of 14 who wishes to utilize location-based services that uses personal location data, as Kakao will use and provide such location data, parental or legal guardian’s prior consent is mandatory. If it is found that the location-based service was used without such consent, Kakao may immediately suspend or place appropriate restrictions on the use of the location-based services.

More specifically, such location-based service consists of: (i) a place-sharing service where you may share your current location or any particular location with other users or prepare postings related thereto; (ii) an information provision service through which you can search your local information or be provided with advertisement information using your current location; (iii) a content-sharing service whereby you may share your content with your friends using your location data that is recorded with your photos or other content or otherwise combined with such content. Particularly, for a minor under the age of 14 who wishes to utilize location-based services that uses personal location data, as Kakao will use and provide such location data, parental or legal guardian’s prior consent is mandatory. If it is found that the location-based service was used without such consent, Kakao may immediately suspend or place appropriate restrictions on the use of the location-based services.

You (including legal guardian of minors under age 14) may request access to or notification of the information confirming the use and provision of your location data, or the reasons, notification and details of your personal location data provided to a third party pursuant to relevant laws and regulations. If the relevant data contains an error, you may demand correction thereof. If Kakao provides your personal location data directly to a third party designated by you, Kakao will promptly notify you of the third party to whom your personal location data is provided, the date, time and the purpose of such provision through your smartphone or other device from which Kakao has collected your personal location data pursuant to relevant laws and regulations.

If the custodian of minors of 8 years old and under, person of incompetence or mentally disabled, among others, provides written consent for the use or provision of the personal location data, it will be deemed consent from such individual. In such case, the custodian may exercise all rights in regards to such personal location data.

Kakao has designated a person responsible for managing location information to protect your location information. (Yeonjea Kim, 1577-3754, Inquiry: https://cs.kakao.com/location_term_requests)

Paid services are available.

Kakao provides its Services free of charge, but some Services are provided at a cost. For example, you can exchange messages with your friends for free on KakaoTalk but may need to purchase some emoticons to be used on KakaoTalk.

If you want to use Kakao’s paid services, you need to pay for the service and Kakao may require you to provide additional information such as your personal information necessary for payment settlement. If you do not want to use paid services, you may request a refund from Kakao and Kakao must give you the refund in principle.

Details regarding the payment of fees of paid services, refund and complaint filing are described in the Terms of Service of Kakao Paid Services.

You must comply with relevant laws and regulations when conducting commercial transactions using an electronic message board.

If you operate a mail order service or a mail order brokerage service using Services, you shall comply with the obligations under laws related to consumer protection in electronic commerce, etc. (hereinafter referred to as the "Electronic Commerce Act").

If any dispute arises between you and another user while you operate a mail order service or a mail order brokerage service, the Company shall operate a system for filing requests for relief of consumers by proxy.

Also, the Company shall verify your personal identify by providing a feature to enter the personal identity, etc. pursuant to the Electronic Commerce Act, and cooperate in the resolution of any dispute between you and another user by providing your personal identification information upon the request of a dispute resolution agency, the Fair Trade Commission, a mayor or a Do-governor, the head of a Si/Gun/Gu, etc.

Members can use the authentication service.

Authentication Service refers to any and all services that utilize digital signatures* and certificates* provided by the Company. The Company shall issue digital signature generation information* and certificates and provide certified members* with (i) digital signature generation information and certificate issuance, (ii) various services utilizing digital signatures and certificates, (iii) simple authentication for user organization's* login and identity verification, and/or (iv) other services specified in the relevant operation rules for digital signature authentication. In this case, the Company may add categories and types of authentication service if necessary or provide additional services separately.

  • "Digital signatures" refer to information in electronic form attached to or logically combined with an electronic document to verify the signer's identity and indicate that the signer has signed thereon.
  • "Certificate" refers to electronic information that confirms and proves the fact that digital signature generation information issued through the Company's authentication service belongs to the relevant member only.
  • "Digital Signature Generation Information" refers to electronic information used to generate electronic signatures.
  • "User Organization" refers to a third party that wishes to use authentication service for transactions or the like based on a certified member's digital signature and certificate.
  • "Certified Member" refers to a member whose digital signature generation information has been authenticated by the Company.

Members must subscribe to the authentication service by providing only accurate information based on the methods set by the Company and shall be converted to certified members upon receiving the certificate. The certificate is issued to only one device per KakaoAccount holder. If a certified member reissues the certificate on another device or another KakaoAccount, the previously issued certificate shall be automatically revoked.

Certified members must use the authentication service according to the methods set by the Company. Certified members shall also safely manage their digital signature generation information, certificates, and other related information and ensure that information provided to the Company or contained in the certificate is accurately and wholly maintained during the usage period. In the meantime, certified members shall be unable to transfer, donate, sell, or license their digital signature generation information and certificates. Moreover, if they perceive a loss, damage, theft or leakage, or any such risk, they must inform the Company of the fact.

The Company may restrict the application and issuance of a certificate or cancel the issued certificate without a certified member's consent for any of the following cases where an incompetent person under the adult guardianship or quasi-incompetent person under the limited; where the application content is determined to be false such as an application under other's name, surreptitious use of others, or the like; where the authentication process suggested by the Company was not completed, or the authentication service subscription was made through abnormal system access not determined by the Company; where a member whose service use contract was terminated due to suspension of use by the Company, violation of relevant laws or this Agreement, or the like, applies for re-use; and/or where it is difficult to issue a certificate due to other reasons attributable to members or incompletion of application requirements set by the Company.

Certified members may use the authentication service freely; provided, however, that they shall not be able to use the authentication service for illegal or unjustifiable purposes, such as accessing the system or using the authentication service in an abnormal way not determined by the Company; and/or issuing or implementing certificates improperly.

The Company may restrict all or part of the use of certificates issued to certified members and immediately revoke certificates without certified members' consent in the following cases where the availability period of the certificate has passed; where a certified member failed to enter a valid certificate password; where the KakaoTalk phone number registered with a certified member's KakaoAccount was changed; where identity verification or electronic transaction is impossible due to the death or arrest of a certified member; where it was confirmed that the CI received from the identity verification agency through the signup process for the authentication service was no longer valid due to changes in nationality, gender, etc.; where the Company must restrict the use of already issued certificates for security reasons such as security procedures related to authentication services or leakage of certified members' digital signature generation information; where a war, incident, natural disaster, or equivalent emergency occurs or may occur; where a certification loss is reported through the Company's customer service; where the Company determines that a certified member violated or is likely to violate its service use policy, such as these Terms and Conditions and Operation Policy, including a case that the Company recognizes that a certified member's certificate was used illegally; and/or where there are other risks of impairing the safety and reliability of authentication services.

The Company shall bear no responsibility for transactions between certified members and user organizations that use a certificate. Moreover, the Company shall not be held liable for damages caused by reasons attributable to certified members and user organizations if there is no cause imputable to the Company.

Other detailed matters related to the authentication service shall be governed by the relevant laws and regulations, including the Electronic Signature Act and digital signature authentication standards separately set by the Company. In addition, the Company shall guide members through authentication service notifications and customer center Help pages.

Services may be suspended occasionally.

Kakao strives to provide Services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year without interruption. However, Service may be suspended temporarily as a result of regular or temporary inspection for equipment maintenance or repair, or due to other unavoidable reasons. In such a case, we will provide prior notice within the relevant Service.
Repeated logins and/or additional consent from users may be required when using Services in order to modify Services or policies seamlessly. If Kakao Services are suspended due to reasons unforeseen by Kakao, Kakao will make its utmost effort to immediately restore the Service once the cause is identified. If Service restoration is delayed for more than two (2) hours, the delays will be alerted through the Services' Notice and Kakao Customer Support Notice sections.

You may elect to deactivate your account.

If you wish not to use Services any longer, you may, at any time, request for the termination of the Terms of Service by using the menu provided in Services. In such case, Kakao will take actions accordingly in a swift manner as required under relevant laws and regulations.

Upon the termination of the Terms of Service, unless we are required to preserve your information under applicable law and/or the Kakao Privacy Policy, your information and any and all data provided by you, such as your postings and other content, will be deleted; provided, however, that, if your posting is scrapped by a third party or posted using another sharing function or if you have added comments to a third party’s posting, such posting or comment may not be deleted to the extent necessary to provide Services to the other users. Therefore, you shall delete them before deactivating your account.

Furthermore, you may elect to terminate only certain Services among other Kakao Services. In such case, only the data related to the terminated Services will be deleted, and your Kakao account will not be deleted for your use of the remaining Services.

Even if your service agreement is terminated, you may sign up for Kakao Services again. However, if your previous service agreement had been terminated due to the restriction of your access to Services following your violation of related laws or Kakao’s Terms and policies, you may be subject to the minimum wait period or other restrictions when you sign up for any Kakao Service again. Please refer to <Kakao Operation Policy> for more details. 

Warranty Disclaimer.

In providing Services, Kakao exercises reasonable skill and due care in helping you enjoy Services to their fullest extent possible.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Kakao expressly disclaims any and all promises or warranties of any kind regarding matters not set forth in the Terms of Service. For example, Kakao disclaims all promises or warranties relating to the particular function or availability of content or service included in Services, and Services are provided on an “AS IS” basis.

Kakao will take responsibility for its negligence.

Kakao desires that you benefit from your use of Services, and if any damages result from Kakao’s negligence, Kakao will compensate you for such damage in accordance with applicable law.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Kakao will not be liable for any (i) personal injury resulting from your access to or use of Services, (ii) damage resulting from unauthorized access to or use of the Kakao servers by a third party, (iii) damage resulting from any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from Services caused by a third party, (iv) damage resulting from transmission of bugs, viruses, adware, spyware, worms or other malicious code by any third party, (v) damage resulting from the omission or destruction of data transmitted, or (vi) damage incurred by you during the course of the use of Services by any third party without Kakao's fault, including, but not limited to, defamatory injury. Moreover, to the extent permitted by applicable law, Kakao will not be liable for lost profits, revenues or data, financial losses or any indirect, incidental, punitive, special, consequential or exemplary damages.

The Terms of Service are subject to change.

In order to reflect changes to applicable law or changes to Services, among other reasons, Kakao may revise the Terms of Service, the instructions for use of each Service through the Q&A Center, other applicable guidelines and notifications. In the event of a change to the Terms of Service, Kakao will post a notification thereof on the Notices page of Kakao Services, and the revised Terms of Service will become effective 15 days after the posting of such notification.

However, if the revised Terms of Service may affect you adversely, Kakao will give you a reasonable 30 day prior notice thereof by sending you an email or an SMS to the email address or phone number you use as a Kakao Account, an electronic message within the relevant Service or an alarm message.

Kakao will receive your comments on the revised Terms of Service for a period from the date of the posting of such notice of the proposed revision until the effective date of the revised Terms of Services. Your failure to provide your comments within such period will be deemed as your consent to the revised Terms of Service. Unfortunately, if you do not consent to the revised Terms of Service, Kakao will be unable to provide Services to you.

General

Your comments and suggestions are highly appreciated. You may, at any time, visit the Kakao Customer Center and leave your comments and suggestions. Kakao will send you various news and announcements by sending an email or an SMS to the email address or phone number you use as a Kakao Account, an electronic message within Service, an alarm message, etc. Announcements applicable to all users of Services will become effective after being posted on the Notices page of Kakao Services for at least 7 days.

The Terms of Service apply to the relationship between Kakao and you only, and no third party will be entitled to any benefits under the Terms of Service.

If you fail to comply with the Terms of Service, Kakao’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Terms of Service right away will not be considered a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms of Service is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision will have no effect on the remaining provisions of the Terms of Service.

This Terms of Service and Services are governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea (“Korea”).

Special Note For International Users: Kakao controls and operates Services from its headquarter in Korea. If you use Services outside Korea, you are responsible for following applicable local laws. By using our Services, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in our Privacy Policy.

  • Date of Announcement : Feb 22, 2022
  • Date of Implementation : Apr 5, 2022

If you have any inquiries on Services (including location-based services), please feel free to visit or contact our Customer Service.