Naver, South Korea’s largest internet portal, has moved its overseas data backup centre from Hong Kong to Singapore.
South China Morning Post reported that this was done amid fears that Chinese authorities could use the Hong Kong's new national security law to access users’ information.
Naver confirmed the moved in a Korean-language blog post statement on Tuesday, July 21, but did not mention the new legislation.
“All data in the data backup centre in Hong Kong has securely been moved to Singapore,” it said.
“Data in Hong Kong was deleted earlier this month and servers there were reformatted.”
Google of South Korea
Naver is often referred to as the Google of South Korea as it offers search-engine services.
Naver also provides the Line messaging app, which is popular in Japan, and has more than 200 million users around the world.
It also has other social media platforms that have millions of users.
It is the first South Korean company known to have made changes to its Hong Kong operations.
A Naver public relations representative both confirmed and deflected the move as being related to Hong Kong's new legislation, saying the move was “not entirely” due to it.
Article 38 of the new law came into force in Hong Kong on June 30.
The central government in Beijing has the authority to prosecute non-residents for acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion related to Hong Kong, even when committed in another country as a result of this new law.
Other companies reviewing Hong Kong operations
Naver had saved South Korean users’ sensitive personal information on its servers in Hong Kong, a Korean lawmaker mentioned in parliament, raising concerns such information could be leaked abroad.
However, Naver clarified that there is "no possibility of a third party looking into personal data under any circumstances as they are strictly coded".
Other internet service providers and tech companies are reviewing their presence in Hong Kong as they believe they are likely to be most affected by the law.
Because of the new law, police will no longer need court orders before requiring internet users or “relevant service providers” to help with investigations, or to delete or restrict access to content deemed to endanger national security.
This "service providers" mention is believed to include social media platforms and firms.
Tech companies such as Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram and LinkedIn have all announced in early July that they had suspended processing law enforcement requests for user data.
Even TikTok, owned by Beijing-based Bytedance, has pulled out of Hong Kong’s Apple and Google app stores.