Unnoticed for a Year... 'Fruit of Love' Leaks Personal Information of Celebrities and Politicians

Real Names and Resident Registration Numbers of Major Donors Leaked
Earlier, Hope Bridge Also Exposed Data of About 1,000 Individuals

Donors' personal information has been leaked from the Community Chest of Korea, known as Fruit of Love, and Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association, which is a legally designated natural disaster relief organization.

On March 6, the Community Chest of Korea reported the personal information leak of high-value donors to the Personal Information Protection Commission and issued an official statement saying, "We are notifying you of the personal information leak and deeply apologize."

Fruit of Love. Yonhap News

Recently, on the Fruit of Love website, the “2024 Public Interest Corporation Settlement Data” containing the unredacted personal information of around 600 donors was posted for about one year, from April last year until March 4 of this year. The leaked list reportedly included key figures from the political and business sectors as well as many well-known celebrities. The Fruit of Love was unaware of this issue until March 4, when the file was deleted and corrective measures were initiated.

The organization is individually contacting affected donors, recommending that they sign up for identity theft protection services to prevent further damage. It has also announced that, should any secondary financial damage occur due to the leaked information, compensation will be provided according to relevant laws and regulations.

The Fruit of Love stated, "We deeply apologize for the concern caused by this incident and will do our utmost to protect donors' personal information and restore trust."

The organization also said it would implement technical measures and provide information security training to all staff members to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

National Disaster Relief Association Apology. Screenshot from the Hope Bridge website

A similar leak occurred at the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association. On February 5, the organization posted “2022–2024 Settlement Data” on its website, which included donors' real names, resident registration numbers, and donation amounts without redaction. The scale of leaked personal information reportedly affected about 1,000 individuals.

Hope Bridge became aware of the leak during an internal audit on the morning of February 25, approximately 20 days after the initial disclosure, and deleted the post at around 4:10 p.m. that same day.

In an official statement on February 27, the association said, "On February 25, we found that the posted website document included some donors' names and resident registration numbers, and we immediately deleted it." The association emphasized, "Currently, there have been no confirmed secondary damages, and we will do our utmost to provide relief to affected individuals in accordance with relevant laws and regulations."

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