Victims of a massive personal data breach at Duo, a South Korean matchmaking company, have filed the first class-action lawsuit over the incident, seeking damages of 1 million won ($730) per person.
Law firm LKB Pyeongsan filed the class-action damages suit against Duo at the Seoul Central District Court on behalf of 46 victims on the 6th of this month, the firm said Tuesday.
According to LKB Pyeongsan, the victims are demanding 1 million won each in consolation money. The amount exceeds the typical 100,000 to 500,000 won range sought in standard contact information leak cases. "Given that the leak involved information closely tied to private life held by a matchmaking company, the severity of the damage is substantial," LKB Pyeongsan said. "Victims are experiencing significant anxiety and concern over the fact that intimate personal information, including marital history, has been exposed externally."
The Personal Information Protection Commission announced on the 23rd of last month that the work computer of a Duo employee handling personal data had been hacked in January of last year, resulting in the external leak of personal information belonging to 427,464 regular members. The leaked data included user IDs, passwords, names, dates of birth, resident registration numbers, gender, email addresses, mobile phone numbers, addresses, height, weight, blood type, religion, hobbies, marital history, sibling relationships, eldest son or daughter status, school names, majors, years of admission, years of graduation, school locations, dates of employment and workplace names. The commission imposed a penalty surcharge of 1.197 billion won and a fine of 13.2 million won on Duo, and ordered the company to immediately notify affected members of the leak.
"Considering the sensitivity of the information held by a matchmaking company, the responsibility cannot be taken lightly," said attorney Jung Tae-won, head of LKB Pyeongsan's class-action center. "We hope this lawsuit will serve as an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of personal information protection." Jung added, "We will continue our response to protect victims' rights, including through second and third rounds of litigation."
