KORAIL Reinstates Employee Fired For Invading BTS RM’s Privacy

The Korean Railway Corporation (KORAIL) has reportedly reinstated an employee who illegally accessed data about BTS member RM.

According to a report by Dispatch, the employee was reinstated after a second review of the offense. On December 22, Kim Du Gwan, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, revealed the decision by the Central Labor Relations Commission, submitted by KORAIL. The Labor Commission ordered the reinstatement of “A,” who had been dismissed before, with regular wage payment.

“A,” who was in charge of IT development at KORAIL, had illegally accessed BTS leader RM’s personal information, including his ticket information, address, and mobile phone number, for three years, starting in 2019. “A” had admitted to having “accessed RM’s reservation information to go see him in real life” and “told their friend which seat RM was at, so they could reserve a nearby seat,” KORAIL stated that their former employee was a fan and had only done so out of curiosity.

A’s actions violated the Personal Information Protection Act, which stipulated that a customer’s personal information should only be accessed for necessary service processing. Except for business purposes, an organization or its employees cannot view a consumer’s data.

Not only did “A” access RM’s personal information, but they did the same with other KORAIL employees without permission. This breach of duty came to the surface during an internal audit of KORAIL, and eventually, “A” was fired.

The staff member challenged the decision, but the application for a review was initially dismissed, given the privacy breach’s seriousness. However, the Central Labor Relations Commission overturned the decision, leading to “A” being reinstated.

You can read about the case in detail here.