Police raid Coupang to seize evidence related to major data breach

Seoul, Dec 9 Police on Tuesday raided the headquarters of e-commerce giant Coupang in South Korea to seize evidence related to the company's massive data breach, officials said.

The search-and-seizure took place after Coupang disclosed late last month that personal information of 33.7 million customers had been compromised, including their names, phone numbers, email addresses and delivery details, reports Yonhap news agency.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's cyber investigation team sent officials to the company's headquarters in southern Seoul to search for evidence that could help determine how the breach took place.

"Based on the secured digital evidence, (we) plan to comprehensively determine the overall facts of the case, such as the leaker of the personal information as well as the route and cause of the leak," a police official said.

Police had previously investigated the case based on data voluntarily submitted by Coupang.

Police earlier said they are tracking down the suspect behind the data breach after securing the Internet Protocol address that was used.

Meanwhile, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into allegations that e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. deliberately made its account withdrawal process complex, officials said.

The investigation aims to determine whether Coupang's account deletion procedures violate the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, according to the officials.

The probe comes amid criticism that users seeking to delete their Coupang account must complete multiple steps, including entering their password twice, filling out a survey and going through other procedures.

At the same time, the FTC has ordered Coupang to submit measures to simplify its account deletion procedures as a preemptive consumer protection measure, noting that the investigation could take months to conclude, the officials said.

Additionally, the antitrust regulator is also looking into suspicions that Coupang's terms of service may violate related laws.

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