KakaoTalk promises to ensure strong privacy after flap, new security features

(PHOTO: Google Play)KakaoTalk app from Google Play.

South Korea's mobile messaging app KakaoTalk is on the road to rebuilding its reputation and security features, following an exodus of users due to fears of the Korean government's ability to monitor and access citizens' digital communications.

"Our commitment to the security and reliability chats and user data is steadfast," Daum Kakao said in a corporate blog post announcing the changes.

The initiative is the first push towards an intensifying campaign to assure the public of data security, and one of Daum Kakao first real challenges.

Daum Kakao is the company formed by the merger of KakaoTalk and Daum Communications Corp.

The company has vowed not to store chat history data longer than three days. They have also employed a fully encrypted privacy setting that will instantaneously erase message data from the company's servers after the message's recipient has read it.

The government's scrutiny of social media and the order of investigation by President Park Geun- hye has triggered worries among South Koreans regarding privacy.

"South Korea's public prosecutors' office could only monitor and read KakaoTalk messages with a court-issued warrant, an office spokesman said. He added that it would deal strictly with clear-cut cases of slander while protecting citizens' freedom of expression," Wall Street Journal reported.

KakaoTalk has stopped honoring warrants from the government seeking to access messages of its users.

"When there is no consensus in society on the rule of law and privacy, we will always place privacy first as a policy," co-chief executive of Daum Kakao, Sirgoo Lee, said.

KakaoTalk is available on iTunes, Google Play, BlackBerryOvi and Windows Phone Store along with desktop versions for Windows and Mac OS X.

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