Last updated: August 19, 2026
How Much Korea (“we”, “us”) publishes price information about South Korea at www.howmuchkorea.com. This policy explains what happens to your data when you visit the site, written in plain language rather than legal boilerplate.
The short version: we do not ask you for anything, we do not run accounts or comments, and nothing on this site currently tracks you. Advertising is planned, and this page explains exactly what will change when it arrives.
Who is responsible
How Much Korea is an independent, one-person publication operated from the Republic of Korea. For any privacy question, or to exercise the rights described below, write to kaphwans@gmail.com.
Where this site is hosted
The site runs on Amazon Lightsail servers located in the United States (us-east-1 region). If you visit from outside the United States, your request and the associated technical data are processed there. Where required, this transfer relies on appropriate safeguards under Article 46 of the GDPR, including the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses used by Amazon Web Services.
What we collect
Information you send us
If you email us, for example to report a price that has changed, we receive whatever you put in that message, including your email address. We use it only to reply and, where relevant, to check and correct the page. We do not add you to any list.
Information collected automatically
Like every web server, ours writes an access log for each request. It records:
- your IP address
- the page requested and the time of the request
- your browser’s user agent string and preferred language
- the referring page, if your browser sent one
These logs exist to keep the site running and to detect abuse such as brute-force login attempts. They are not used to build a profile of you and are not combined with anything else.
Security scanning
The site uses Wordfence, a security plugin, to block malicious traffic. It inspects request data, including IP addresses, and may check them against its own reputation service. Wordfence is operated by Defiant, Inc. in the United States.
Cookies
A cookie is a small file a site asks your browser to store. This site uses them in two ways, both of which only affect someone signing in to the administration area:
- Strictly necessary. WordPress sets a session cookie only if someone logs in to the administration area. Ordinary readers are never logged in and receive none.
- Security. Wordfence may set a cookie to recognise a returning administrator and to enforce login-attempt limits.
That is the whole list today. No advertising cookie and no analytics cookie is currently set by this site. The two sections below describe what is planned and what will change when it happens.
You can delete or block cookies in your browser settings at any time.
Advertising
Not yet active. No advertising is currently served on this site.
We intend to fund the site through Google AdSense. This page will be updated before the first ad appears. When it does, the following will apply:
- Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site.
- Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet.
- Third-party vendors and ad networks appearing through Google may also place cookies or similar technologies. We do not control those parties and cannot see the data they collect.
You will be able to opt out of personalised advertising by Google at Google Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com). For a wider opt-out covering many advertising vendors at once, use aboutads.info/choices or youronlinechoices.eu. More detail on how Google handles data on partner sites is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Analytics
Not yet active. No analytics or measurement code runs on this site today.
Two Google services are planned:
- Google Search Console, which reports aggregated search statistics to us. It does not place cookies on your device, does not identify you, and does not change what your browser loads.
- Google Analytics 4, which measures how pages are used. GA4 does set cookies and processes usage data, including a truncated IP address, with Google acting as our processor.
This page will be updated before either goes live.
If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland
Once advertising or analytics is switched on, a consent message will appear before any non-essential cookie is set. Nothing beyond the strictly necessary and security cookies listed above will be set until you choose, you will be able to reopen that choice at any time from the site footer, and withdrawing consent will be as easy as giving it.
Until then there is nothing to consent to, because nothing non-essential is running.
Affiliate links
There are no affiliate links on this site today. Articles may carry them in future — to travel services such as SIM cards, insurance or airport transfers. If you follow one, the partner may set a cookie so that a resulting purchase is credited to us. We receive a commission; you pay no more than you otherwise would. Affiliate links are disclosed on the pages where they appear, and they never influence the prices we report or the recommendations we make. See our Editorial Policy for how that separation is maintained.
What we never do
- We do not sell your personal information.
- We do not run comments, forums, user accounts or registrations.
- We do not operate a mailing list. If we ever start one, it will be opt-in only and this policy will say so first.
- We do not knowingly collect information from children.
Legal bases for processing
For visitors covered by the GDPR or UK GDPR:
- Server logs and security scanning rely on our legitimate interest in keeping the site available and secure (Article 6(1)(f)). This is the only processing happening today.
- Advertising and analytics cookies, once they are introduced, will rely on your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), collected through the consent message described above.
- Replying to an email you send us relies on our legitimate interest in answering correspondence (Article 6(1)(f)).
How long we keep things
- Server access logs: rotated and deleted within 30 days.
- Security logs and blocked-attempt records: up to 12 months.
- Email you send us: kept while the matter is open, and deleted when it no longer serves a purpose.
- Cookies: for the lifetime set by the party that placed them. Advertising cookie lifetimes are set by Google and disclosed in its own policy.
Your rights
If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland
You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its processing, to receive it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent at any time. To use any of these, email kaphwans@gmail.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority.
If you are in California
Under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA you have the right to know what personal information is collected and for what purpose, to request deletion, to correct inaccurate information, and to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. We do not sell personal information and, as no advertising currently runs here, nothing is being shared for cross-context behavioural advertising either. Personalised advertising counts as “sharing” under that law, so once ads are introduced you will be able to opt out through the advertising controls linked above, and this site will honour the Global Privacy Control signal where your browser sends one. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.
If you are in the Republic of Korea
Under the Personal Information Protection Act you may request access to, correction of, suspension of processing of, or deletion of your personal information by writing to the address above.
Security
The site is served entirely over HTTPS with a certificate that renews automatically. Administrative access is limited to a single account protected by login-attempt limiting. No payment information is ever collected on this site.
Changes
When this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top and, for changes that affect how your data is used, ask for consent again where the law requires it.
Contact
Questions about this policy: kaphwans@gmail.com