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| ▲ Corporate logo of Weverse Company, provided by the firm. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL,
Jan. 5 (Yonhap) --
Weverse apologized to fans over the incident Mnoday and said it has filed a criminal complaint against the employee while launching sweeping institutional reforms related to fan events.
Weverse Company, which operates the platform, posted a statement under the name of CEO Choi Jun-won earlier in the day to disclose the unauthorized data leak.
“We recently confirmed that an internal employee of Weverse Company illegally leaked another person’s personal information and attempted to use it for private purposes,” Choi said. “We view this as a serious matter that goes beyond an individual’s misconduct and reflects shortcomings in our management of employees. We deeply apologize to the fans who trusted and used Weverse.”
Choi said the case was uncovered during in-person interviews, written inquiries and forensic investigations into employee misconduct.
According to the company, an employee identified as A, who was in charge of fan events, inquired with a related department about whether a specific applicant had won a fan signing event, even though it was outside the scope of A’s duties. A then steered the conversation to additionally obtain the applicant’s year of birth, beyond just the name. The applicant was known to be an acquaintance of A.
The applicant’s name and year of birth were subsequently shared in a private KakaoTalk group chat consisting of six people, including A and the acquaintance.
Choi said the employee also attempted to intervene in the event’s winner selection process but added that “no actual intervention or changes were made.” The applicant was ultimately confirmed to have legitimately won and participated in the event.
In a separate case, A also captured screenshots of a winners list for a public broadcast event for personal purposes and shared the names, dates of birth and phone numbers of 30 winners in the same private group chat.
Weverse Company said it has notified users whose personal information was confirmed to have been leaked.
“In addition to the above, multiple violations of internal regulations and illegal acts, including breach of duty and obstruction of business, were identified during the investigation,” Choi said. “We immediately removed the employee from duties, referred the case to the personnel committee and filed a criminal complaint. We will take strict action in accordance with the law and fully cooperate with any requests from investigative authorities.”
The company said it has also begun implementing measures to prevent a recurrence.
“We are conducting a comprehensive review of our management systems and employee training and are moving forward with improvements to prevent recurrence,” Choi said. “Following an investigation into fan event processes, we will promptly address any deficiencies. As investigations into relevant departments are ongoing, we will quickly identify and revise not only shortcomings related to this case but also system-wide and institutional improvements across the entire process.”
To that end, Weverse Company has formed an internal task force to begin discussions, reviewing the entire process from advance notices to winner selection and announcements. The company also said it will impose stricter limits on access rights to fan event systems and personal data.
“We will further strengthen employee education on personal data protection standards and continuously improve our internal management systems,” Choi said. “We will reinforce security controls for those handling personal information and operate a more rigorous, constant monitoring environment.”
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