This translation is provided for your convenience only. If there is any inconsistency between this translation and the Korean original, the Korean original shall prevail.

Chapter 1: General Provisions
Chapter 2: Service Use Agreement
Chapter 3: Obligations of the Contracting Parties
Chapter 4: Use of the Service
Chapter 5: Termination and Restriction of Use
Chapter 6: Miscellaneous

Chapter 1. General Provisions

Article 1 (Hello!)
These Terms of Service set out the basic matters, including the rights, obligations and responsibilities between The Suwan News (the "Company") and users, and the conditions and procedures for using the Suwan News account service, the various internet and mobile services, and all related ancillary services (the "Service") provided by the Company.

Article 2 (Definitions)
The terms used in these Terms are defined as follows.
1. User: a person who receives the Service provided by the Company under these Terms
2. Use Agreement: the agreement concluded between the Company and a user in connection with the use of the Service
3. Sign-up: the act of entering the required information in the application form provided by the Company and agreeing to these Terms, thereby completing the Service use agreement
4. Member: a person who has registered as a member by providing the personal information required for membership on this site
5. User ID: a combination of letters and numbers selected by the user and approved by the Company for member identification and the member's use of the Service (only one ID may be issued per email address)
6. Password: a combination of letters, numbers and special characters set by the user to protect the member's information
7. Withdrawal: an expression of intent by the Company or a member to terminate the use agreement after the Service has been used
8. School verification: the act of a member completing verification, in accordance with the procedure set by the Company, to prove that the member is a university student, using a student ID card, school email or similar means
9. Chat service: a service that allows members to exchange messages, images and other content with each other in real time
10. Post: information consisting of text, documents, images, audio, video or any combination thereof that a member posts on the Service while using the Service

Article 3 (Effect and Amendment of the Terms)
If a member does not agree to the amended Terms, the member may request withdrawal (termination) of membership. If the member continues to use the Service without expressing refusal within 7 days from the effective date of the amended Terms, the member is deemed to have agreed to the amendments.
(1) These Terms take effect when posted on the Service screen or announced on the notice board or by other means.
(2) The Company may amend these Terms when deemed necessary. Amended Terms are announced on the Service screen, and if the user continues to use the Service without expressing refusal within 7 days after the announcement, the user is deemed to have agreed to the amendments.
(3) If a user does not agree to the amended Terms, the user may stop using the Service and cancel their membership registration. Continued use is deemed agreement to the amended Terms, which take effect in the manner described in the preceding paragraphs.

Article 4 (Applicable Provisions)
Matters not specified in these Terms are governed by the Framework Act on Telecommunications, the Telecommunications Business Act and other applicable laws and regulations of the Republic of Korea.

Chapter 2. Service Use Agreement

Article 5 (Formation of the Use Agreement)
The use agreement is formed by the Company's acceptance of the user's application for use and the user's agreement to these Terms.

Article 6 (Application for Use)
An application for use may be made by entering the applicant's personal information in the sign-up form required by the Company on the member information screen of the Service.

Article 7 (Acceptance of Applications)
(1) When a member applies for use after accurately completing all items of the application form, the Company accepts the application unless there are special circumstances.
(2) The Company may refuse to accept an application in any of the following cases:
1. when the application is not made under the applicant's real name
2. when the application is made using another person's name
3. when the application contains false information
4. when the application is made with the aim of disturbing public order or good morals
5. when the application otherwise fails to meet the requirements set by the Company

Article 7-2 (University Student Verification and Membership Tiers)

1. The Company may require members who wish to use certain boards or features within the Service to verify that they are university students.
2. Members must complete the verification procedure required by the Company (such as school email verification) in good faith, and members bear full responsibility for any consequences arising from providing false information.
3. The Company may restrict or differentiate the scope of Service use depending on the verification results.

Article 8 (Changes to Registered Information)
Members must update their registered information when it changes, and members are responsible for any problems arising from failure to do so.

Chapter 3. Obligations of the Contracting Parties

Article 9 (Obligations of the Company)
The Company does not disclose or distribute members' personal information obtained in connection with providing the Service to third parties without the member's consent.
In addition, even if a government agency of any country unilaterally requests access to a member's personal information, the Company will not provide any such information unless there is an official document issued through due legal process under the laws of the relevant country.

Article 10 (Obligations of Members)
(1) When using the Service, members must not engage in any of the following acts:
1. fraudulently using another member's ID
2. copying, publishing or providing to third parties information obtained from the Service
3. infringing the copyright of the Company, the copyright of third parties or other rights
4. distributing content that violates public order or good morals
5. acts objectively judged to be connected to a crime
6. impersonating, causing confusion with, or acting in a manner judged similar to the Company, its employees or administrators
7. other acts that violate applicable laws
(2) Members may not use the Service for commercial activities, and the Company assumes no responsibility for the results of such use.
(3) Members may not transfer or gift their right to use the Service or any other status under the use agreement to others, nor may they offer it as collateral.

Chapter 4. Use of the Service

Article 11 (Obligations of Members)
(1) Members are responsible for maintaining and managing their own email, posts and registered materials as needed.
(2) Members may not arbitrarily delete or alter materials provided by the Company.
(3) Members must not post on the Company's website any content that violates public order (including spam posts and test posts) or good morals, or that infringes the copyright or other rights of third parties. If such content is posted, the member will be withdrawn from membership first, and the member bears full responsibility for any resulting consequences.
(4) When using the chat service, members must not send messages that cause disgust to others or that constitute sexual harassment, stalking or intimidation.

Article 12 (Management and Deletion of Posts)
For efficient operation of the Service, the Company may limit members' storage space, message size, retention period and the like, and may delete posted content without prior notice if it falls under any of the following:
1. content that defames or slanders other members or third parties and damages their reputation
2. content that violates public order or good morals
3. content judged to be connected to criminal acts
4. content that infringes the copyright of the Company, the copyright of third parties or other rights
5. when a member posts obscene material on the Company's website or boards, or links to obscene sites
6. content judged to be advertising or of a similar nature
7. content otherwise judged to violate applicable laws
8. content that disparages a specific school, department or individual, or that incites conflict among university community members
9. repeatedly posting promotional posts (group purchases, tutoring jobs, etc.) without the administrators' permission
10. proposing illegal transactions (account trading, proxy test-taking, etc.) through the chat service

Article 13 (Copyright of Posts)
The copyright in a post belongs to its author. Members may not commercially use materials posted on the Service, including processing and selling information obtained through the Service.

Article 14 (Service Hours)
In principle, the Service is available 24 hours a day, year round, unless there is a special business or technical impediment. This does not apply in cases such as scheduled maintenance.

Article 15 (Responsibility for Service Use)
Users must not use the Service to engage in hacking, linking to obscene sites, illegal distribution of commercial software or similar acts. The Company assumes no responsibility for the results of or losses from business activities arising from such violations, or for legal measures taken by relevant authorities.

Article 16 (Suspension of the Service)
The Company may suspend the provision of the Service in any of the following cases:
1. when unavoidable due to construction work such as maintenance of Service facilities
2. when a key telecommunications operator under the Telecommunications Business Act suspends telecommunications services
3. when a system inspection is required
4. in other cases of force majeure

Chapter 5. Termination and Restriction of Use

Article 17 (Termination and Restriction of Use)
(1) When a member wishes to terminate the use agreement, the member must apply for termination online in person, and the Company will take action after verifying the member's identity.
(2) If a member commits any of the following acts, the Company must notify the member of its intent at least 30 days before termination and give the member an opportunity to state their position:
1. stealing another person's user ID and password
2. intentionally interfering with the operation of the Service
3. signing up with false information
4. registering twice with different IDs as the same user
5. distributing content that disturbs public order or good morals
6. damaging another person's reputation or causing them disadvantage
7. transmitting large volumes of information or advertising information with the aim of disrupting the stable operation of the Service
8. distributing computer virus programs or the like that cause malfunction of information and communications facilities or destruction of information
9. infringing the intellectual property rights of the Company, other members or third parties
10. fraudulently using another person's personal information, user ID or password
11. posting obscene material on the member's own homepage or boards, or linking to obscene sites
12. otherwise being judged to violate applicable laws

(3) The Company may immediately suspend use or compulsorily withdraw membership without prior warning in the following cases:

1. when sexual offences through chat (sexual harassment, sharing of obscene material, etc.) or stalking are detected
2. when university student verification information is forged or another person's information is stolen
3. when serious defamation is caused by spreading false information about a specific person

Chapter 6. Miscellaneous

Article 18 (Prohibition of Transfer)
Members may not transfer or gift their right to use the Service or any other status under the use agreement to others, nor may they offer it as collateral.

Article 19 (Damages)
With respect to services provided free of charge, the Company assumes no liability for any damage incurred by a member, except for damage caused by the Company's intent or gross negligence.

Article 20 (Disclaimer)
(1) The Company is exempt from responsibility for providing the Service when it cannot provide the Service due to natural disaster, war or other force majeure equivalent thereto.
(2) The Company is exempt from liability for damage caused by unavoidable reasons such as repair, replacement, scheduled inspection or construction of Service facilities.
(3) The Company is not liable for impediments to Service use caused by reasons attributable to the member.
(4) The Company is not liable for the profit a member expects to gain from using the Service or for damage caused by materials obtained through the Service.
(5) The Company is not liable for the reliability, accuracy or other aspects of information, materials or facts posted on the Service by members.
(6) The Company does not intervene in, and is not liable for, disputes arising between members through chat or the exchange of posts (monetary transactions, offline meetings, etc.), unless caused by the Company's intent or gross negligence.
(7) Members are responsible for backing up their chat content, and the Company is not liable for the loss of chat records due to Service errors.

Article 21 (Governing Law and Jurisdiction)
The legal relationship between the Company and users is governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea, and in the event of litigation concerning the use of the Service, the court having jurisdiction over the Company's place of business shall be the competent court.

Addendum
(Effective date) These Terms take effect on 22 February 2015.
(Amendment date) These Terms were amended on 31 March 2026 and take effect one week from the amendment date.

This translation is provided for your convenience only. If there is any inconsistency between this translation and the Korean original, the Korean original shall prevail.

The Suwan News (the "Company") strictly complies with the Personal Information Protection Act of the Republic of Korea and related Korean privacy laws, as well as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and follows the OECD privacy guidelines.

Through this Privacy Policy, the Company informs data subjects (users) of the purposes and methods by which the personal information they provide is used and managed.

■ Personal information we collect
The Company collects the following personal information for website sign-up and management.
1. Required items: user name, login ID, password, email address, service usage records, access logs, cookies, access IP information, payment records
2. Optional items: home address, gender, date of birth, bank account number, credit card information
3. Collection methods: website (sign-up, boards, application forms)

■ Purposes of collection and use of personal information
The Company processes personal information for the following purposes. The personal information being processed is not used for any purpose other than those below, and if the purpose of use changes, the Company will take necessary measures, such as obtaining separate consent, in accordance with Article 18 of the Personal Information Protection Act.

1. Website membership sign-up and management
Personal information is processed for the purposes of confirming the intention to sign up, identifying and authenticating users in providing membership services, maintaining and managing membership status, preventing fraudulent use of the Service, and delivering various notices and handling grievances.

2. Handling of inquiries and complaints
Personal information is processed for the purposes of verifying the identity of the complainant, confirming the matter raised, contacting and notifying for fact-finding, and communicating the results.

3. Provision of goods or services
Personal information is processed for the purposes of providing services, providing content, and providing personalized services.

4. Marketing and advertising
Personal information is processed for purposes such as developing new services (products), providing personalized services, providing events and promotional information and opportunities to participate, and analyzing access frequency or compiling statistics on members' use of the Service.

■ Provision and outsourcing of personal information
The Company does not provide users' personal information to government agencies or others for any reason, except where the Company is legally obliged to submit personal information by order of a court in any jurisdiction. If the Company provides user information to a third party, it will disclose that fact through its Transparency Report.

– Provision of personal information to third parties (outsourcing)
The Company entrusts part of the work necessary to provide the Service to outsourced contractors. The Company stipulates and supervises the matters necessary for the entrusted companies to manage personal information safely in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act. If the Company does not provide personal information to the entrusted companies, the Service may not be available to users.

■ Cross-border transfer of user personal information

The Company may transfer user personal information abroad in certain limited cases, for the purpose of providing the Service and for user convenience. When transferring data abroad, the Company thoroughly implements legal and technical measures to protect personal information and complies with all procedures required by applicable laws.

1. Personal information subject to cross-border transfer

The personal information transferred abroad is limited to the minimum information necessary for service operation and technical support purposes.

• Items transferred: name, email address, service usage records
• Purpose of transfer: technical support, service operation

2. Countries to which personal information is transferred and contractors

• Country: United States
• Contractors: Google LLC, Automattic, Akismet, Stripe, Inc., PayPal, Inc.
• Transfer method: data transmission via secure channels (encrypted transfer protocols)

3. Timing of cross-border transfer and retention period

• Timing of transfer: when the Service is used or when a specific technical support request arises
• Retention period: only for the period required by applicable laws or for the purpose of the Service

4. Protective measures for cross-border transfers

The Company takes the following measures so that user personal information receives the same level of protection abroad as it does domestically:

• conclusion of personal information protection agreements with contractors
• application of data encryption and security protocols
• regular review of contractors' level of personal information protection

5. User rights and objections

Users have the right not to consent to the cross-border transfer of their personal information, in which case the use of the Service may be partially restricted.

• Withdrawal of consent and objections: 1533-5835

The Company regards the safety of user personal information as its top priority and will protect personal information through thorough security measures even when it is transferred abroad. Please feel free to contact the Company with any further questions.

■ Retention and use period of personal information
The Company destroys personal information without delay once the retention period has elapsed or the purpose of use has been achieved. However, where preservation is required by applicable laws, the information is moved to and stored in a separate database (DB).

– Items preserved: login ID, payment records
– Basis for preservation: Act on the Use and Protection of Credit Information
– Preservation period: 3 years
– Related laws:
1) Records on display/advertising: 6 months (Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce)
2) Records on contracts or withdrawal of offers: 5 years (Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce)
3) Records on payment and supply of goods: 5 years (Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce)
4) Records on consumer complaints or dispute resolution: 3 years (Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce)
5) Records on the collection/processing and use of credit information: 3 years (Act on the Use and Protection of Credit Information)

■ Procedure and method of destruction of personal information
– Destruction procedure
The Company destroys personal information for which grounds for destruction have arisen, with the approval of the privacy officer.
– Destruction method
Personal information stored in electronic file form is destroyed using technical methods that make the records unrecoverable.

■ Users' rights and how to exercise them
1. Requests to access, correct or delete personal information:

• Users may request access to, correction of, or deletion of their personal information at any time.
• To view or modify your personal information, use the profile edit function; to withdraw membership, click "withdraw membership" and complete identity verification, after which you can directly view, modify or withdraw. Alternatively, contact the privacy officer by email and we will take the necessary measures immediately in accordance with applicable laws.

2. Procedure for exercising the right to be forgotten:

• If a user wishes to delete information about themselves published online, the following procedure applies:
  • How to request: apply to our customer center or privacy officer in writing, by phone, by email, etc.
  • Required documents: a copy of an ID card for identity verification, official documents proving bereaved-family status where applicable (e.g., family relation certificate, birth certificate), and details and URLs of the information to be deleted.
  • We will inform you of the outcome within 30 days of receiving the request.

3. Limitations on deletion requests:

• Deletion requests may be restricted in the following cases:
  • information that must be preserved under applicable laws
  • information that needs to be preserved for public interest purposes
  • other cases where the deletion request is judged to be unjustified

4. Other rights: Users may withdraw consent to the processing of their personal information or request suspension of processing, following the same procedures as above.
If a user requests the correction of an error in their personal information, the Company will not use or provide that personal information until the correction is completed. If incorrect personal information has already been provided to a third party, the Company will notify the third party of the correction without delay so that the correction is made.
Personal information terminated or deleted at the user's request is handled as specified in "Retention and use period of personal information" and is processed so that it cannot be viewed or used for any other purpose.

■ Installation, operation and refusal of automatic personal information collection devices
The Company uses "cookies" to store and retrieve usage information in order to provide individualized, customized services. Cookies are small text files sent to the user's browser by the server operating the website, and are stored on the user's computer hard disk.

▶ Purposes of cookies
– Analyzing the access frequency and visit times of members and non-members, identifying users' tastes and interests and tracking their activity, and measuring participation in events and number of visits, for targeted marketing and personalized services.

You have a choice regarding the installation of cookies. You can set options in your web browser to allow all cookies, to require confirmation each time a cookie is saved, or to refuse all cookies.

▶ How to refuse cookies
Example: You can refuse cookies by selecting options in your web browser to allow all cookies, to require confirmation each time a cookie is saved, or to refuse all cookies.
Example settings (for Chrome): you can refuse cookie storage in your browser under Tools > Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data. Note that refusing cookies may limit your use of the Service.

■ Designation of the privacy officer
The Company designates the following department and privacy officer to protect customers' personal information and handle privacy-related complaints.

Privacy officer: Kim Dongju
Department: –
Position: CEO
Email: [email protected]

Users may contact the privacy officer regarding any issues arising while using the Company's services. The Company will respond promptly and fully to user reports.

If you need to report or consult on other privacy infringements, please contact the following organizations:

1. Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee (www.1336.or.kr / 1336)
2. e-Privacy Mark Certification Committee (www.eprivacy.or.kr / 02-580-0533~4)
3. Supreme Prosecutors' Office Internet Crime Investigation Center (http://icic.sppo.go.kr / 02-3480-3600)
4. National Police Agency Cyber Terror Response Center (www.ctrc.go.kr / 02-392-0330)

■ Notice

If this Privacy Policy needs to be amended and republished, the Company may announce the change through website notices or by individual notification.
However, in the event of significant changes to user rights, such as the purposes of collection or the scope of use of personal information, the Company will give notice at least 30 days in advance and may request additional consent from users.

– Date of change: 2 January 2025
– Date of announcement: 27 March 2015
– Effective date: 27 March 2015