Possibility of 'imprisonment' for railway employee who browsed the personal information of BTS without permission

It was reported that an employee of the Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) who viewed the personal information of BTS leader RM without permission could be sentenced to 'imprisonment'.

According to Korean media reports, a KORAIL employee browsed RM's personal information without permission, "I checked RM's reservation details and saw RM in person", and "A friend reserved a seat nearby. I gave them RM's reservation information so that they could do it," they boasted to those around them.

After receiving the information, KORAIL conducted an audit and confirmed that Employee A was browsing the information without permission. In the course of the audit, it was found that Employee A had also viewed the personal information of a male KORAIL employee who had appeared on a certain program. At this time, we have not confirmed any leakage of personal information.

KORAIL has dismissed Employee A and is taking disciplinary action. Employee A is said to have said during the audit, "I'm a fan of RM and browsed out of curiosity."

In addition to internal disciplinary action, Employee A is expected to face criminal prosecution on suspicion of violating the Personal Information Protection Law. Under the Personal Information Protection Act, if a person who receives personal information uses it for an illegal purpose without obtaining the consent of the information subject, he or she may be sentenced to imprisonment with work for not more than five years or a penalty of not more than 50 million won (about US$38,000). be fined. However, most of the personal information protection law violation cases that do not leak to the outside are likely to be fined.

In the past, a delivery staff who obtained a phone number through food delivery and sent a message to a woman he liked, and a small and medium-sized company president who approached an applicant using entry information for new employee recruitment were fined.

A lawyer from the public prosecutor said, "In the case of KORAIL employees, no information has been leaked outside, but they can be seen as habitual offenders who have repeatedly committed similar crimes over a long period of time.'' In view of the fact that he browsed personal information of the railway service, to which many of them subscribe, without permission, it is possible that he could be sentenced to imprisonment."