Kim Se-hee, operator of the YouTube channel Gaseyeon, has been fined for using personal information collected during the recruitment of an 'election fraud monitoring team' for his own election campaign support messages.
Kim Se-hee, the operator of the YouTube channel Gaseyeon, faces legal repercussions for using personal information gathered from applicants for an 'election fraud monitoring team' to send campaign messages in support of his own candidacy in the 2023 elections. The ruling came from the Seoul Central District Court, which found Kim guilty of violating the Personal Information Protection Act. The court imposed a fine of 200,000 won on both Kim and Gaseyeon, indicating a clear breach of the intended purpose for which the personal data was collected.
The incident revolves around actions taken prior to the 2022 Presidential election, where Kim posted a recruitment message on the internet soliciting individuals for the monitoring team. Applicants, who submitted their personal details via a link provided, later found that their information was utilized without consent to bolster Kim's political campaign. The court noted that Kim's actions constituted an overreach beyond the original intent of data collection, which was meant strictly for monitoring alleged election fraud rather than for individual promotion.
Following the ruling, Kim and Gaseyeon expressed their dissatisfaction and appealed the decision in December of the previous year. The implications of this case extend beyond legal penalties; it raises significant questions regarding the ethics of data usage in political campaigning and the ongoing discourse around personal information protection in South Korea, especially in the context of sensitive topics like election integrity.
