A New Audit Tool for Keeping Platform Integrations Compliant

The roles of integrations are becoming more clearly separated

NAVER is moving its search, search-term trend, and shopping-insight integrations to NAVER API HUB. An API is a connection that brings another company’s data or functions into a service. New applications through the Developer Center closed at midnight on July 30, 2026, and existing applicants can use the services only until midnight on June 30, 2027.

Within search, shopping, book, and academic-information services ended at midnight on July 31, 2026, separately from that grace period. Existing users could no longer make requests from the following day. For operators who assumed that a connected search function would remain available, this means that they need to manage end dates and migration plans by function.

The Search API Special Terms, effective from September 7, 2026, set out the scope for storing, processing, selling, using in artificial intelligence, and combining results with advertising. Data may be temporarily retained on a user’s device only for the shorter of 24 hours or the point at which that same user makes a new search. Search history on servers is permitted for no more than 21 days. A 21-day limit means that an operator preparing a monthly report cannot keep the original text of earlier search results intact.

A client ID is an identifier that distinguishes which app made a request. The current terms of use state that one identifier should generally be issued for one app. They prohibit using multiple identifiers for apps with the same purpose to increase request volume, or reusing an identifier for another app that has not been approved. However, according to the app registration guide, multiple environments for the same service—such as web, Android, and iPhone—can be registered under one app.

On October 7, 2026, wording on notification responsibilities and the NAVER Login partnership policy was also revised. Search results and member information received through login have different conditions for storage, so it is easy to miss requirements when they are managed together as a single category called “NAVER data.” Each integration now needs its own record of purpose, identifier, storage location, deletion date, screen display, and responsible person.

How a day changes for a 12-person booking service

Consider an operator of a local-store booking service with 12 employees. Users sign up with a NAVER account, while operators use local search results to find store names and addresses. Two outside development agencies divide responsibility for maintaining the web and app products.

Today, the company head asks agencies for a list of identifiers, a planner asks where search results are stored, and the advertising manager checks again whether ads appear on the results screen. Answers are scattered across email, chat rooms, documents, and work requests. When the app is redesigned, it may not be immediately clear that an old identifier was copied or that search results were retained in analytics materials for too long.

With an audit tool, the first step is to register integrations such as “NAVER Login,” “local search,” and “search history.” For each item, the operator records the app in use, the last four digits of the identifier, the management account, the responsible agency, the data stored, and the planned deletion date. This makes it possible to distinguish which app uses an identifier without retaining the full original value.

The second step is to map the route from when data arrives to when it disappears. For example, the operator marks in sequence whether local search results remain temporarily on a user’s phone, enter the company server’s recent-search list, or are copied into an operations report. Items with fixed periods, such as 24 hours or 21 days, automatically receive a planned deletion date and a person responsible for confirmation.

The third step is to manage actual screens alongside the records. When an operator uploads an image of a search-results screen, the tool presents questions about attribution, a link to the original source, insertion of other content, and whether advertising is displayed. Rather than declaring whether a screen is allowed, the tool flags screens that may not fit the terms so that a person can compare them with the rules.

Some work still remains with people. Whether the same web and app product can be treated as one service, whether a paid feature beside search results conflicts with monetisation restrictions, and whether the purpose for storing login information is appropriate all depend on the service structure. In ambiguous cases, the operator needs to ask NAVER in writing and attach the response to the relevant item.

What is hard to copy in this tool is not the warning message or the checklist. The more it accumulates real customers’ app-by-app data flows, past changes and action records, and habits of joint updates by agencies and operations staff, the harder it becomes to move to another tool. The lasting structure is data, relationships, and trust rather than technology.

Outside Korea, products separate permissions by storage rights

India’s Ola Maps provides map, place, and route functions to Indian developers and mobility, delivery, and logistics businesses. It was free for its first year after launching in 2024, then moved in September 2026 to a usage-based plan with up to 100,000 monthly requests free for each integration. Autocomplete incurs request-based charges by tier after 100,000 requests.

Ola does not allow unlimited use simply because it operates its own maps. For street-level imagery, it limits the processing and storage of information that can identify people, requires faces and vehicle licence plates to be blurred, and prohibits unauthorised collection. It shows that even a service replacing an external platform needs to build permission and retention rules into the product.

US-based Mapbox provides maps, place search, and directions for automotive, travel, real-estate, and consumer apps. It charges based on map displays, directions requests, mobile-app users, and other measures, while some industries use separate commercial agreements.

Mapbox documents retention periods separately for each integration. For example, vector map tiles have a default device retention period of 12 hours, while redistributing downloaded offline maps is not permitted. It manages whether data can be stored, how long it can be stored, and redistribution rights as separate items.

UK-based OpenStreetMap allows people to use, modify, and redistribute its underlying map data free of charge. In return, users must provide attribution, and publicly used derivative databases may carry the same openness requirements. It is another starting point for services where long-term storage or offline maps are central.

Free access to source data does not eliminate operating costs. Commercial services still spend on map servers, search, route calculation, performance, and outage response. Even under more open terms, attribution and republication obligations must be managed continuously.

Four small products you could build now

1. Integration ledger

What it does: Brings together the NAVER search, login, and local integrations used by a company, plus app-specific identifiers, management accounts, and responsible people. Who uses it: An operations team for a booking service that assigns client web and app work across several development agencies. Why now: It needs to manage search-function migration dates alongside the principle of one identifier per app. The first screen lists integrations by service name and shows warnings for “no responsible person” and “no migration schedule.”

2. Retention and deletion calendar

What it does: Records where search results are stored and requests deletion confirmation according to deadlines such as 24 hours and 21 days. Who uses it: An operator of a local-information app that shows users their recent searches and local search history again. Why now: Even for the same search result, permitted periods differ by purpose, such as device personalisation or server-side history lookup. The first screen shows data to delete today, the storage purpose, location, and confirmation owner in time order.

3. Results-screen review inbox

What it does: Lets a user upload a screenshot, then check attribution, the original link, changes to result order, insertion of other content, and advertising in sequence. Who uses it: A planner for a salon-booking app that wants to place local search results and its own booking products on the same screen. Why now: Search results must be shown independently without processing, and advertising and monetisation on that screen are also restricted. The first screen includes a mobile-screen upload area and four review states: “attribution,” “link,” “advertising,” and “processing.”

4. Terms-change alert inbox

What it does: Collects notices and terms changes for registered external integrations, then assigns work to affected screens, stored data, and responsible people. Who uses it: A small maintenance agency that manages NAVER integrations for several client companies. Why now: Search migrations, the end of some data services, and effective dates for terms do not align, so forwarding a notice alone does not complete the work. The first screen shows change date, effective date, affected clients, and the status “not reviewed,” “being updated,” or “complete.”

Why this matters where you are

Check whether the platforms your service depends on distinguish between device storage, server retention, screen display, and redistribution. The specific providers, terms, dates, and commercial models will differ by market, but a record of data flows, responsible people, and past changes can make those differences visible. Start with one integration whose answers are currently scattered across messages and documents.

What to check in 30 minutes today

Call the operations lead and development agency and ask only where NAVER search results remain—on phones, company servers, or reports—and when they are deleted. If they cannot provide all storage locations and deletion dates within 30 minutes, or if their answers differ, it may be worth building a small trial version of the retention and deletion calendar.