hankyoreh

A Coupang delivery truck can be seen in a logistics center lot in Seoul on Feb. 10, 2026. (Yonhap)

Coupang confirmed Tuesday that approximately 200,000 of the roughly 33 million customer accounts affected by its personal data leak last year belonged to Taiwanese users.

In an announcement posted that day on the websites of Coupang Taiwan and Coupang Inc., the parent company of Coupang Korea, the company stated it has “determined that the former employee’s unauthorized activity in the same incident [as Korea] also included access to approximately 200,000 accounts in Taiwan.” 

“Of those, [cybersecurity firm] Mandiant’s forensic analysis has identified that the former employee retained data from one (1) Taiwan-based account,” the notice went on to explain. 

Coupang claims the ex-employee retained data from approximately 3,000 accounts in total, including one in Taiwan and the rest in Korea.

In an announcement uploaded on the same day, Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs stated that Coupang Taiwan had made a report to the government on Monday regarding the personal data leak that occurred in Korea last year and that the ministry had “immediately issued a request to Coupang Taiwan for an explanation of the incident and related information.” 

According to Coupang, a former employee improperly accessed information, including name, email address, phone number, delivery address and the five most recent purchases, for around 33 million accounts. Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs has ordered Coupang’s local unit to inform affected users, establish a dedicated customer service channel, formulate a compensation plan and take proactive action to handle the issue. 

The ministry said it plans to conduct an additional administrative review of the incident and will take legal action if breaches of the Personal Data Protection Act are discovered.

Coupang maintains that “no financial or payment card data, login credentials (e.g., passwords), or government-issued IDs were accessed from any Taiwan-based account.”

By Seo Hye-mi, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]