'Yang Jeong-cheol Cleared of Charges in 4·15 General Election Location Data Use'

Yang Jeong-cheol, former head of the Democratic Research Institute
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghoon Jeong] Yang Jeong-cheol, former head of the Democratic Research Institute, who was accused of using location information data of mobile carrier subscribers during the April 15 general election, has been cleared of charges.

According to the police on the 10th, Yang was accused in April of using processed statistical data of mobile carrier subscribers' location information for election campaign strategies during the last general election (violations of the Personal Information Protection Act and the Location Information Protection Act, etc.).

The Democratic Research Institute utilized big data received from mobile carriers during the last general election to analyze population movement by time zone and identify areas with high floating populations for election purposes.

The Mapo Police Station in Seoul, which investigated the accusation, judged that the data used by Yang did not violate the Personal Information Protection Act or related laws, and on September 9th, forwarded the case with a non-prosecution opinion due to insufficient evidence. The Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office is also reported to have decided not to prosecute Yang in the same month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.