Privacy Policy | Future of Korea

Effective 12 August 2026. This policy explains what happens to data when you visit futureofkorea.com (“this site”, “we”, “us”). We are the data controller for that processing. Contact: editor@futureofkorea.com (subject line PRIVACY).

1. The short version

We don’t ask you for a name, an email address, or an account. We don’t sell your data. Almost everything below concerns two third parties — our advertising provider and our analytics provider — and what they set in your browser.

2. What we collect

Information you give us. Only if you email us. In that case we hold your address and message for as long as needed to deal with it, and then for a reasonable period as a record of correspondence.

Information collected automatically. Our hosting and CDN providers process standard server data on every request: IP address, user-agent string, referring URL, requested page, and timestamp. This is used for delivering the site and for security, and is retained for a short period by those providers.

Information collected by third parties. Advertising and analytics partners may set and read cookies or similar identifiers, and may collect your IP address, device and browser characteristics, approximate location (usually city-level, derived from IP), pages viewed, and interactions with ads. Details below.

We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. We do not collect special-category data. We do not require registration.

This site is free to read and funded by advertising served through Google AdSense.

Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site.
Google’s use of advertising cookies — including the DoubleClick DART cookie — enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
You can opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices and youronlinechoices.eu.
Third-party vendors and ad networks other than Google may also serve ads on this site and use their own cookies. A list of Google’s certified ad technology providers is at Google’s ad technology providers page.

Google’s own handling of data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Advertising policies.

If you are in the EEA, UK or Switzerland, we present a consent notice (a Google-certified Consent Management Platform) before non-essential cookies are set, in line with the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework and Google’s EU user consent policy. Ads are served non-personalised unless you consent to personalisation. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time via the “Cookie settings” link in the site footer.

4. Analytics

Where enabled, we use Google Analytics 4 to understand which articles are read and how people arrive. GA4 uses cookies and processes an IP address, which Google truncates/anonymises before storage. We use it in aggregate; we do not attempt to identify individuals. You can prevent GA4 collection entirely with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

5. Hosting and delivery

The site is a set of static files served through a content delivery network. The host processes request logs as described in section 2 as a processor on our behalf and for its own security purposes.

Purpose	Legal basis
Serving the site, security, abuse prevention	Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f))
Responding to your email	Legitimate interests / performance of steps at your request
Non-essential cookies: advertising, personalisation, analytics	Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), obtained via the consent notice

We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising other than through the advertising mechanism described in section 3, which you can decline. Data may be disclosed to: our hosting/CDN provider; our advertising and analytics providers; and, where legally required, competent authorities.

Some of these providers are outside your country. Transfers out of the EEA/UK rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or an applicable adequacy decision.

8. Retention

We hold no reader database. Email correspondence is retained while relevant. Third-party cookie lifetimes are set by those providers — typically from a session up to 24 months.

9. Your rights

EEA / UK (GDPR). Access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection (including to processing based on legitimate interests), and withdrawal of consent at any time. You may complain to your national supervisory authority, or to the UK ICO.

California (CCPA/CPRA). The right to know, delete, and correct; the right to opt out of “sale” or “sharing” of personal information; the right to limit use of sensitive personal information; and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. We do not sell personal information for money. To opt out of the sharing that occurs through personalised advertising, use the Google Ads Settings link in section 3 or a Global Privacy Control signal, which we honour where transmitted.

Korea (PIPA). Rights of access, correction, deletion, and suspension of processing.

To exercise any right, email PRIVACY to editor@futureofkorea.com. We respond within 30 days. Because we hold no account data, the most effective action for most requests is clearing cookies for this domain and using the opt-out links above; we will tell you honestly when that is the case.

10. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Browsers send DNT inconsistently and there is no agreed standard for honouring it, so we do not act on it. We do honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals as an opt-out of sharing for personalised advertising where our providers support it.

11. Security

The site is served over HTTPS only. Because we operate no accounts, logins or payment processing, the attack surface for reader data is deliberately minimal. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure.

12. Children

This site is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, email us and we will delete it.

13. Changes

We will post any change here and update the effective date. Material changes will be flagged on the front page for at least 14 days.