Ahead of the 20th presidential election, Kim Se-eui, head of the Garosero Research Institute, and the Gaseyeon corporation were each fined for allegedly using personal information collected during the recruitment of a "rigged election monitoring team" for his own campaign.
On the 16th, according to legal sources, Judge Jang Su-jin of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 7 single-judge panel sentenced Kim and the Gaseyeon corporation, who were indicted on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act, to fines of 2 million won each.
Kim was found to have, ahead of the Mar. 9, 2022 presidential election, posted a recruitment notice for a "rigged election monitoring team" on online communities and the like, along with a link to enter applicants' names and mobile phone numbers. The following year in March, when running in the People Power Party supreme council election, he was brought to trial on charges of having a Gaseyeon employee send promotional messages to the monitoring team applicants' contact numbers to inform them of his candidacy. The messages were also found to have included a blog link containing the full text of Kim's candidacy declaration.
Prosecutors, finding that personal information collected for the specific purpose of recruiting the monitoring team was used for Kim's personal in-party appeal for support, applied charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act and filed a summary indictment. The court earlier issued a summary order of a 2 million won fine, and Kim objected and requested a formal trial.
However, the court held that "using personal information collected for the purpose of recruiting a rigged election monitoring team to announce one's candidacy and solicit support is use beyond the scope of the collection purpose," and imposed the same sentence as the summary order.