Police currently investigating how personal information was leaked in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' "Startup for All" project have launched a compulsory investigation into related companies.
Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency said on the 14th that it booked the head of an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions company that took part in the Startup for All project on suspicion of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, and conducted raids and seizures at four locations, including the company and the entity managing its servers, earlier this month.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said last month that the email addresses of 5,000 successful applicants to the Startup for All project, summaries of their startup ideas, and evaluation comments had been leaked.
The suspected personal information leak surfaced after complaints that participants received promotional emails from a specific AI company at email addresses that were not publicly disclosed.
A "personal information leak report" from the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED), released by People Power Party lawmaker Kang Seung-gyu, said the AI solutions company obtained nonpublic email addresses through abnormal application programming interface (API) calls and then sent promotional emails.
The AI solutions company was tasked with supporting various uses of AI so participants could further develop their startup ideas in concrete terms.
Police are analyzing server logs and related materials obtained through the raids to determine how the personal information was leaked and who is responsible.