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back to article Screw the guvmint, vows CEO of ubiquitous Korean jabber app KakaoTalk

The boss of South Korea's leading messaging app KakaoTalk has apologised for handing access to users' private conversations to the country's authorities and vowed it won't happen again. According to Korean-language news reports, KakaoTalk gave police access to thousands of private user communications. "Not to repeat the …

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  1. Crazy Operations Guy

    Government Spying

    To be fair, South Korea does have a fairly dangerous enemy nearby who has a very powerful ally. Unlike the USA/UK who seem to be scared of shadows.

    3 0 Reply
    1. Throatwobbler Mangrove
      Reply Icon

      Re: Government Spying

      It was also a military dictatorship until fairly recently. There's a good reason to be worried about the state having access to your private communications.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Trigonoceps occipitalis
        Reply Icon

        Re: Government Spying

        It was also a military dictatorship until fairly recently. There's a good reason to be worried about the state having access to your private communications if you have something to hide.

        FTFY

        0 0 Reply
        1. SolidSquid
          Reply Icon

          Re: Government Spying

          Because clearly it's not the case that entirely legal but embarrassing details about people's lives has been used for blackmail by government officials or law enforcement

          0 0 Reply
  2. Mark 85

    At least the citizens, in the majority, claim to trust their government. A pity it can't be said for the rest of us about trusting our governments.

    2 0 Reply
  3. chivo243 Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    Just wondering

    Have the governed ever trusted their government? As far as my history education reaches, most governing bodies were always made up or the rich and so called royal, or the occasional psychopath. Not the group you would equate with trust.

    5 0 Reply
  4. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    " A group of Koreans aged from 26 to 34 told The Register they cared about their privacy, but couldn't be bothered to change app because "everyone I know uses it"."

    Yep, meaning they don't care about their privacy. This happens here in the US too of course -- far too many people will claim "Look at how Facebook violates my privacy! Of *COURSE* I care about privacy!" then go straight to posting everything and anything on facebook.

    "Have the governed ever trusted their government?"

    Yeah apparently it happens. In some cases, the populace have a functional political system and can replace anyone distrustful (not here in the US and it's effectively one-party system!) In some cases, the gov't just by dumb luck turns out to be benign and unobjectionable for a while. And, governments which are good enough at propaganda can have a populace that's treated pretty shabbily but don't mind it one bit; either they think they are treated well enough, or aren't too chuffed but have been convinced that any other political setup will treat them even worse.

    0 0 Reply
    1. SolidSquid
      Reply Icon

      Well in fairness the US does seem to have become a two party system again now that one of the parties has gone off the rails and decided to prioritize screwing up anything done by the current administration to make themselves look better in comparison for the next election

      0 0 Reply

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