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.

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.

Please pay particular attention to the following.

For example, you may not interfere with the provision of Services or access to Services using a method other than the one provided and approved by Kakao. Furthermore, you may not collect, use or provide to others the information of other Service users, use Services for any profit-generating activity, transmit any information that is pornographic, infringe on any third party’s copyright, post false facts about Kakao or any third party, or otherwise violate public order, laws or good morals. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, transfer, lease, provide as security or permit others to use any part of Services or software included in Services without Kakao’s consent. In addition, you may not reverse engineer, attempt to extract the software source code included in Services or copy, disassemble, reproduce or otherwise modify Services.

For example, you may not interfere with the provision of Services or access to Services using a method other than the one provided and approved by Kakao. Furthermore, you may not collect, use or provide to others the information of other Service users, use Services for any profit-generating activity, transmit any information that is pornographic, infringe on any third party’s copyright, post false facts about Kakao or any third party, or otherwise violate public order, laws or good morals. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, transfer, lease, provide as security or permit others to use any part of Services or software included in Services without Kakao’s consent. In addition, you may not reverse engineer, attempt to extract the software source code included in Services or copy, disassemble, reproduce or otherwise modify Services.

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. Kakao has the right to destroy or store your personal information separately if your account has been inactive for the period specified in the relevant laws. Kakao will notify you via email or SMS before proceeding. 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.

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 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 copyrights laws, and you may at any time take actions to delete the concerned content or make it a private content through Kakao's Customer Service or using the administration function within Services if available. 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.

If a dispute arises between Kakao and you in connection with the location data, and if such dispute is not amicably settled, in accordance with Article 28 Section 2 of the Act on the Protection, Use, Etc. of Location Information, and Article 43 of the Personal Information Protection Act, you may submit a request for mediation to the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee.

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. Provided however that Kakao may not give you a refund in the event that Kakao restricts your access to the service or terminates the service agreement because of your violation of this Terms of Service.

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.

Services may be suspended occasionally.

Kakao strives to provide Services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year without interruption. However, as a result of a regular or temporary inspection of the equipment for maintenance or repair or due to other unavoidable causes, Services may temporarily be suspended. In such case, we will provide a prior notice to you within the relevant Service. If Services are suspended due to causes not foreseen by Kakao, Kakao will notify you thereof immediately after Kakao determines the causes for the relevant suspension.

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.

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 : September 7, 2018
  • Date of Implementation : October 8, 2018

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