Privacy policy

Korea Through Photographs (the Service), operated by 커피한잔, explains the sources and categories of personal information, purposes, public visibility, retention periods and how to exercise your rights under the Korean Personal Information Protection Act.

Effective date:

Your first Kakao login automatically creates an account. Current account features cover login and account management. Comments, replies and photo editing are not available yet.

1. Information and purposes

We provide registration and login through Kakao. We save only the information listed below that you agree to share through Kakao. New accounts are regular users; the operator assigns moderator access separately.

We identify accounts by their Kakao user ID. Missing profile information, including email, gender, age range and birth year, is not guessed or replaced with fabricated values.

Information collected through Kakao registration and login
Information Collection condition Purpose Visibility Retention
Kakao user ID Required Registration, login, identifying the same member and account management. Private Until account deletion or withdrawal of consent
Nickname (profile_nickname) When shared with consent Building your account profile and identifying your own signed-in account. Shown in your account menu Until account deletion or withdrawal of consent
Profile photo URL (profile_image) When shared with consent Storing the Kakao profile photo address as account profile information. Private Until account deletion or withdrawal of consent
Email (email) When shared with consent Managing the contact address provided by Kakao. Matching email addresses do not cause accounts to be merged. Private Until account deletion or withdrawal of consent
Gender (gender) When shared with consent Managing the gender provided by Kakao as private account information. Private Until account deletion or withdrawal of consent
Age range (age_range) When shared with consent Managing the age range provided by Kakao as private account information. Private Until account deletion or withdrawal of consent
Birth year (birthyear) When shared with consent Managing the birth year provided by Kakao as private account information. Private Until account deletion or withdrawal of consent

The Kakao user ID is necessary to identify your account. Other profile fields are stored only when Kakao supplies them following consent. The service can create an account when those fields are absent. Required and optional labels on Kakao's consent screen follow the Kakao app settings.

We do not collect CI, legal name, birthday (month and day), phone number or shipping information. We request and store only the listed information from the Kakao API. We never collect your Kakao password or resident registration number.

We store the profile photo URL without copying the image file. Kakao access tokens, refresh tokens and full API responses are not saved in member tables.

For email inquiries and photo submissions, we use the email address, name or nickname, message and attachments you provide to handle and respond to your request, retaining them until that purpose is fulfilled.

Server logs may record IP addresses, access times, request paths and errors for operation and troubleshooting. Authorization codes, tokens and member profiles are filtered from logs.

3. Visibility of member information

Member information is not currently made public to other visitors. Your nickname appears in your own account menu. Kakao user ID, email, gender, age range, birth year and profile photo URL are not displayed on public pages.

We will explain the scope of disclosure before introducing comments, replies or public profiles.

4. Retention and deletion

Kakao user ID, collected profile information, registration time and latest login time are retained until account deletion or withdrawal of consent, then deleted without undue delay. Information no longer needed is also deleted when its purpose has been fulfilled.

Login persistence tokens keep you signed in and are invalidated at logout. Login persistence lasts three months and may be extended when you return.

Inquiry materials and operational logs are deleted when their purposes have been fulfilled. Information subject to a legal retention obligation is kept separately for the applicable period.

Electronic files selected for disposal are deleted in a way that prevents recovery; any paper records are shredded or incinerated.

5. Sharing and service providers

We do not sell or arbitrarily disclose member information. Any disclosure based on separate consent or a legal basis is limited to that scope.

Kakao provides login information with your consent. Kakao's own privacy policy governs your Kakao account.

We do not use external advertising or analytics tools. Any processing outsourcing or international transfer will be disclosed in this policy with the necessary notices and consent procedures.

6. Cookies and your choices

We use session and persistent-login cookies to keep you signed in and secure requests. We do not use advertising tracking cookies.

You may delete or block cookies in your browser settings. Blocking them may prevent login or persistent login.

7. Your rights

You may request account deletion, withdrawal of consent, access, correction, erasure or suspension of processing through the email below. We verify your identity or your representative's authority before handling the request.

Changing your Kakao profile does not automatically update every profile field in this service. Contact us to correct information or check the status of Kakao unlinking and account deletion.

We use only the minimum information needed to verify requests and do not ask for your Kakao password or resident registration number.

8. Security measures

Access to personal information is limited to operators who need it. Authentication settings are managed securely. Production login uses HTTPS, and authentication tokens and personal information are filtered from logs.

Account permissions are managed on the server, and login requests are checked for forgery. We avoid unnecessary storage of profile response data and authentication tokens.

9. Privacy contact

Personal information controller: 커피한잔 / Service: Korea Through Photographs (koreaarchive.com)

Privacy officer and contact for access requests: Kim Jaeho (김재호)

For privacy questions, rights requests, complaints or requests for redress, please email:

10. Policy changes

This policy takes effect on November 4, 2026. If information categories, purposes, public visibility or retention periods change, we will announce the changes and effective date on the Service in advance. Changes requiring separate consent will be applied only after obtaining that consent.