"Don't Trust Oppa?" Criminal Charges for Snooping Through Partner's Phone to Extract Passwords

Accused of Accessing Ex-Partner's Contact and Videos
Court: "Information Obtained Using Technical Means"

A ruling has been made that secretly entering the password on a partner's smartphone to access personal information of past partners can lead to criminal punishment.

[Image source=Pixabay]

On the 26th, according to the legal community, Judge Ha Jin-woo of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 22 suspended the sentence of a 300,000 won fine for A (30), who was charged with electronic record content detection.

A suspended sentence means the court acknowledges guilt but postpones the sentencing. After two years, it is considered dismissed, but if a sentence of disqualification or higher is confirmed during the suspension period, the sentence will be imposed again.

A is accused of secretly entering the password on the cellphone of B, her boyfriend in December 2020, and viewing contact information and videos of his ex-girlfriend.

The court stated, "It can be acknowledged that the defendant arbitrarily entered the password on the victim's cellphone, which is an electronic record with a secret device, and obtained the relevant information," and explained the reason for the sentence suspension as "considering that this is a first offense."

"It is difficult to see that the password of a cellphone containing data of an ex-partner was willingly shared"

[Image source=Pixabay]

This case began when B filed a complaint with investigative authorities, raising the issue of A searching through his cellphone.

Following the investigation, the prosecution viewed that A committed the crime of secret infringement under the Criminal Act and filed a summary indictment with a fine of 300,000 won.

Article 316 of the Criminal Act stipulates that if one uses technical means to open sealed letters or electronic records and learns their contents, they shall be punished by imprisonment or detention for up to three years or a fine of up to 5 million won. Since this is a crime requiring a complaint, prosecution cannot proceed without the victim's complaint.

A appealed the prosecution's decision and requested a formal trial.

In court, A claimed that B had given her the password to restore trust broken by complicated romantic relationships, and she only used it.

However, the court did not accept this, stating there was no evidence to believe that B had shared the cellphone password with A.

It explained that it is difficult to understand that the password of a cellphone containing data of an ex-girlfriend would be willingly shared.

Furthermore, the court held that even if B had shared the password, the scope of its use should be limited to the extent of allowing A to check unexpectedly whether there was contact with other people, such as "call logs and KakaoTalk message history."

Then, the court ruled that A's searching through the cellphone to view the ex-girlfriend's contact information and videos was clearly against B's will and should be regarded as "obtaining information using technical means," which is prohibited under criminal law.

A claimed innocence and filed an appeal.

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