Last updated: August 18, 2026
Korea Culture Now (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the website koreaculturenow.com (the “Site”). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using the Site, you agree to the practices described here.
The Site is operated from the Republic of Korea and is intended for a general international audience.
1. Information We Collect
Information you provide directly
- Contact form submissions. If you write to us through our Contact page, we receive the name, email address, and message you submit.
- Comments. If you leave a comment, we collect the comment content, the name and email address you enter, your IP address, and your browser user-agent string. This information is used to display the comment and to detect spam.
Information collected automatically
When you visit the Site, certain information is collected automatically by our hosting provider, our analytics tools, and our advertising partners. This may include:
- IP address and approximate geographic location (country or city level)
- Browser type, operating system, and device type
- Pages viewed, time spent on pages, and the links you click
- The referring website or search engine that brought you here
- Date and time of your visit
2. Cookies and Similar Technologies
A cookie is a small text file stored on your device by your web browser. The Site uses cookies and similar technologies (such as web beacons, pixels, and local storage) for the following purposes:
- Essential cookies — required for basic site functionality, such as remembering your comment details and maintaining security.
- Analytics cookies — help us understand how visitors use the Site so we can improve our content.
- Advertising cookies — used by third-party advertising partners to serve and measure advertisements, including personalized advertisements.
You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies entirely or to be notified before a cookie is stored. Please note that blocking essential cookies may affect how the Site functions.
3. Advertising and Google AdSense
We use third-party advertising companies to serve advertisements when you visit the Site. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that may interest you.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve advertisements based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites.
- Google’s use of advertising cookies enables Google and its partners to serve advertisements to you based on your visit to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
- You may also opt out of third-party vendor cookies for personalized advertising by visiting aboutads.info or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
- For more information on how Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps, please see Google’s Privacy & Terms page.
We do not control the cookies used by third-party advertisers, and this Privacy Policy does not cover their practices. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third parties directly.
4. Analytics
We use the following analytics services to understand how visitors interact with the Site:
- Google Analytics 4 — a web analytics service provided by Google LLC. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information about your use of the Site, including pages visited and session duration. This information is transmitted to and stored by Google. You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Learn more at Google’s Privacy Policy.
- Microsoft Clarity — a behavioral analytics service provided by Microsoft. Clarity captures how you use and interact with the Site through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay in order to improve our content and user experience. Clarity does not capture the content of form fields or other sensitive input. For more information, see the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
5. Other Third-Party Services
- Akismet — comment and contact form submissions are checked against the Akismet anti-spam service, operated by Automattic Inc. This involves transmitting the submitted content, along with your IP address and user-agent, to Akismet’s servers. See the Automattic Privacy Policy.
- Cloudflare — we use Cloudflare as a content delivery network and security layer. Cloudflare may process your IP address and set cookies to identify trusted traffic and mitigate malicious activity. See the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
- Embedded content — articles on this Site may include embedded content from other websites, such as YouTube videos, Google Maps, or Pinterest pins. Embedded content behaves exactly as if you had visited that other website, and those sites may collect data about you, use cookies, and monitor your interaction with the embedded content.
6. How We Use Your Information
We use the information described above to:
- Operate, maintain, and improve the Site
- Understand which content is useful to readers and plan future articles
- Respond to inquiries submitted through our Contact page
- Display and measure advertisements
- Detect and prevent spam, abuse, and security threats
- Comply with applicable legal obligations
We do not sell your personal information.
7. Legal Basis for Processing (EEA and UK Visitors)
If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, our legal bases for processing your personal data are:
- Consent — for analytics cookies and personalized advertising cookies, where required.
- Legitimate interests — for essential site operation, security, spam prevention, and aggregate traffic measurement.
- Legal obligation — where processing is required to comply with applicable law.
Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time through the cookie consent controls on the Site or through your browser settings.
8. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:
- The right to know what personal information we hold about you
- The right to request a copy of that information
- The right to request correction of inaccurate information
- The right to request deletion of your information
- The right to object to or restrict certain processing
- The right to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
- The right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising these rights
California residents have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), including the right to know what categories of personal information are collected and the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. As stated above, we do not sell personal information.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 12.
9. Data Retention
Comments and their metadata are retained indefinitely so that follow-up comments can be recognized and approved automatically. Contact form messages are retained only as long as needed to respond to your inquiry. Analytics data is retained according to the default retention periods of the respective analytics providers.
10. International Data Transfers
The Site is hosted in the Republic of Korea. Our analytics and advertising partners, including Google and Microsoft, may process data on servers located in the United States and other countries. By using the Site, you understand that your information may be transferred to and processed in countries whose data protection laws may differ from those of your country of residence.
11. Children’s Privacy
The Site is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
12. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise any of your rights, you can reach us through our Contact page or by email at [email protected].
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically. Continued use of the Site after any changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.