Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10-06

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Waegook collects, why, and how it is handled.

What we collect

• Account: email, nickname, optional avatar and bio, preferred language.
• Verification: for higher verification tiers, contact details (e.g. Phone) and information you submit. We collect metadata only. we do not collect resident-registration numbers and do not require ID-card images.
• Content: your posts, comments, chat messages, and chat images.
• Usage/technical: IP address, browser/user-agent, and the approximate location you choose to attach to a post.
• Search phrases: the words you search for, kept without your identity (see "AI features" below).
• Usage analytics: aggregate, first-party statistics about how Waegook is used (e.g. Active users, sign-ins, and which pages are visited). no third-party trackers and no advertising.
• Consent records: which policy version you accepted, with timestamp, IP, and user-agent.
• Shared links: when you open a link a member shared, the page, the date, and a scrambled fingerprint of your browser (see "Links members share" below).
• Guest requests (no account): a generated guest identifier, an optional notification email (never displayed publicly), hashed abuse-prevention signals, and the request content itself. Anonymous member posts stay linked to the member account internally.

Required vs optional

Email and nickname are required to use the service. Avatar, bio, and post location are optional. Marketing email/push consent is optional and separate from the service.

Why we collect it

• To operate the marketplace and community.
• To verify accounts and reduce fraud.
• To enable chat and discovery.
• For safety, moderation, and abuse prevention.
• To send service (transactional) messages.
• To understand and improve how Waegook is used.
• To comply with the law.

Usage analytics

We collect first-party, aggregate usage statistics to understand how Waegook is used and to improve it. For example daily active users, sign-ins, and which pages are most visited. This data is kept on our own systems and is not shared with advertisers or third-party analytics services. It does not include the content of your posts or private messages, and older analytics records are deleted automatically over time. We do not use cross-site tracking or advertising cookies.

Verification data

Verification information is stored privately, is visible only to Waegook administrators, and is used solely for verification. We avoid storing full identification numbers.

Chat images and media

Chat images are private. They are access-controlled and viewable only by the participants of that chat through a protected link, never via a public URL.

AI features

Waegook uses an AI provider (OpenAI) for a small set of features. Some run only when you press a button: improving a post draft, translating a public post, pulling the details out of a job ad you paste, and explaining a photo of a document in the Document Helper. For these, only what you give that feature (your draft, the post, the pasted text, or the photo) is sent to produce the result. A document photo is sent once to produce the explanation and is not kept by Waegook unless you choose to save the document.

Chat translation. When you and the other person in a chat use different languages, auto-translate is switched on for that chat so each of you can read it in your own language. Each message is sent to the AI provider on its own, one at a time, only to translate it. We do not send a chat's history in bulk, and translations are not stored on our servers. A notice in the chat tells you it is on, and you can switch it off for any chat. Switching it off stops the messages you receive from being sent for translation; the other person chooses separately whether the messages they receive are translated.

Search. When you search, the words you type are sent to the AI provider so that a search in one language can find posts written in another, and to suggest a corrected spelling. Email addresses and phone numbers are removed first, and the search is not linked to your account when it is sent. We keep a copy of search phrases, without your identity, so the same search does not have to be sent again.

Some tools, such as the LifePass assistant, also use the AI provider to answer what you ask them.

We do not send your passwords, verification documents, identity records, or unrelated account data. AI results are suggestions you review before anything is saved or sent, and your original text is always preserved. AI is never used to decide whether a person, listing, or transaction is safe. These features can be turned off by administrators, and there is always a non-AI way to post and chat.

When you were last active

Signed-in members can see roughly when you were last active. Shown on your profile and in chat as "Active now", "Active today", "Active this week" or "Active a while ago". We never show an exact time, and logged-out visitors never see it at all.

You can turn this off at any time in Profile › Preferences. If you do, other members cannot see when you were active. and you will not see theirs either. Anyone you have blocked, or who has blocked you, never sees it regardless of this setting.

Links members share

A signed-in member can share any page on Waegook, and the link they share carries their invitation code. If you open such a link, we remember that code on your device for 30 days (a cookie) and record the visit: the page, the date, and a scrambled fingerprint of your browser. The fingerprint is a hash of the kind of device, its operating system and browser family, its language and the network prefix of your address, mixed with a secret. It cannot be turned back into you, and visits are deleted after 30 days.

If you create an account within those 30 days, the member whose link you opened may be credited for inviting you and earn points. We work that out from the code you enter, from the cookie, or, when neither is there, from the fingerprint. A fingerprint-only match is checked by a Waegook administrator before anyone is credited. After you sign up we may also ask you once who told you about Waegook; you can skip that.

The member who shared a link sees only counts: how many times their links were opened and how many people joined through them. They never see who visited.

Automated checks on public content

Separately from the features you trigger yourself, content you post publicly. Marketplace and community posts, comments, Find It requests and replies, and reviews you write about other members. may be checked automatically for safety, and indexed so that search can find it across languages. These checks run in the background and send the public text to our AI provider (OpenAI). They are used to help our administrators prioritise what to look at; they never decide on their own to hide, delete, or restrict anything, and they are never used to judge whether a person or a transaction is safe.

Your private messages are not included. We do not send the contents of your chats for automated checking or indexing.

Job posts are indexed for search in the same way, so a search in one language can find a job written in another.

Service providers

We use trusted third parties to operate Waegook:

• Google and Kakao. Sign-in.
• Kakao Maps. location selection.
• Brevo. transactional email.
• Cloudflare. DNS and email forwarding.
• Amazon Web Services (CloudFront). content delivery.
• OpenAI. the AI features described above: writing help, translation, search, document explanation, and the automated checks on public content.
• Our hosting provider. servers and storage.
• An SMS provider may be added later for phone verification.

Cross-border processing

Some providers may process or store data outside the Republic of Korea. We use reputable providers with appropriate safeguards.

Retention

• Account data: kept until your account is deleted.
• Deactivated accounts: restorable for 30 days, after which personally identifying profile data is anonymized or deleted, except records we must keep by law.
• Posts and chats: kept until deleted or until the account is removed, subject to safety/legal needs.
• Reports, moderation, and admin audit records: retained as needed for safety and legal compliance.
• Marketing consent: kept until you withdraw it.
• Shared-link visits: deleted after 30 days, except the one visit an invitation was credited to, which stays with that invitation record.

Your rights

Under applicable Korean privacy law (PIPA) you may request access, correction, or deletion of your data, and may withdraw consent. Contact: privacy@waegook.com.

Security

Passwords are hashed, sensitive uploads are access-controlled, and we apply standard security measures. No system is completely secure.