[Economic Essay Contest] AI data sovereignty: The case for a local server interceptor in Korean finance

An elderly woman in Seoul unknowingly sends her bank statement to a server in California when using ChatGPT to explain a transaction, highlighting a widespread data sovereignty risk in Korean finance as AI tools are adopted without local infrastructure to prevent data leaks.

The Screenshot Nobody Thinks About An elderly woman in Seoul takes a photo of her bank statement. She is confusing about a transaction. Her grandson told her to “just ask ChatGPT.” She uploads the image. Within seconds, the AI explains the charge. Problem solved. Except it is not solved. That bank statement with her account number, transaction history, and personal details just traveled to a server in California. She has no idea. Her bank has no idea. And until something goes wrong, nobody will care. This is happening right now, thousands of times a day, across Korea’s financial system. We have no infrastructure to stop it. The Invisible Data Leak Financial institutions are racing to adopt AI tools. Chatbots answer customer questions. AI assistants help employees draft reports. These tools are useful. Banning them would be impossible. But there is a silent risk: When users interact with AI systems, data flows outward. A customer uploads a document. An employee pastes a client email into a writing assistant. A researcher screenshots proprietary data. Each action sends information to f