"Bad Landlord" Identity Disclosure Appears... How Was It During Badfathers?

As cases of jeonse fraud surge nationwide, a website called 'Nappeun Jipjuin' (Bad Landlord) has emerged, revealing the personal information of landlords who have failed to return jeonse deposits. As of the 25th, the site has disclosed the photos, names, dates of birth, and addresses of seven landlords.

Following the passage of the Housing and Urban Fund Act in the National Assembly plenary session last February, starting this September, the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) will allow users to check the names, ages, and addresses of malicious landlords through its Safe Jeonse app. The purpose is to prevent further victims until then.

The problem lies in the unauthorized disclosure of individuals' personal information, which could lead to defamation charges under current law.

There are similar precedents. 'Bad Fathers,' which revealed the identities of parents who failed to pay child support for their minor children, was praised for bringing the child support issue to light. The Digital Prison, which disclosed personal information of criminals, received significant public support amid social outrage over digital sex crimes such as 'Welcome to Video' and the 'Nth Room' cases.

[Image source=Screenshot from Nappeun Jibjuin website]

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However, legal rulings differed. Gu Bon-chang, the representative of Bad Fathers, was sued for defamation by some of the child support non-payers whose identities were revealed on the site and was brought to trial. In the first trial conducted as a citizen participation trial, Gu was acquitted, but the appellate court overturned the verdict and sentenced him to a 1 million won fine with a suspended sentence. Gu is currently appealing and awaiting the Supreme Court's decision.

A, who operated the Digital Prison, was sentenced in December 2021 to four years in prison and fined 18.9 million won for unauthorized disclosure of personal information of violent criminals. Earlier, in September 2020, the Korea Communications Standards Commission pointed out the risks of disclosing personal information and decided to block access to the Digital Prison site.

Concerns have also been raised that innocent individuals' identities could be exposed. 'Nappeun Jipjuin' operates by receiving documents and reports about malicious landlords via email from users, reviewing them, notifying the landlords of the disclosure, and then revealing their personal information on the website two weeks later. However, since the operator is a private individual rather than the government or investigative agencies, there are concerns about wrongful exposure of innocent parties.

Previously, in July 2020, the Digital Prison mistakenly identified a person with the same name as an accomplice in the 'Miryang Middle School Girl Gang Rape Case' and disclosed their personal information before correcting the error. At that time, the Digital Prison stated, "Upon re-verification, it was found that incorrect information was shared. I will take full legal responsibility for the damage caused," and removed the information from the site. However, the personal information had already spread online.

In September of the same year, the Digital Prison also exposed a university professor for allegedly attempting to purchase sexually exploitative videos, but this was later found to be false information.

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