Kakao is facing criticism over its advertising practices on KakaoTalk, after a civic group survey showed a majority of users are unhappy with the surge in promotional messages on the messenger platform. According to a survey by Seoul YMCA of 2,000 KakaoTalk users released Tuesday, 59.2 percent of respondents said they experience discomfort with the messenger’s Brand Message service, a promotional format that delivers business ads through its chat interface. Notably, only 11.8 percent of respondents said they remembered giving consent to receive advertising messages, while 45.7 percent said they did not recall ever doing so. “This reflects a lack of transparency in Kakao’s consent process and suggests it should more clearly inform users at the time of service sign-up,” the civic group said. When asked about the need to regulate advertising messages, 62.1 percent of respondents said government oversight is necessary. Seoul YMCA demanded that Kakao revise its policies to more explicitly seek user consent before sending marketing messages and to clearly disclose that personal informat