SEOUL, July 29 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court on Friday ordered SK Broadband Co., a high-speed Internet service provider, to pay a combined 400 million won (US$379,686) in compensation to its customers whose personal information was leaked by the company.
About 2,500 SK Broadband customers filed class-action suits between 2008 and 2010, claiming the Internet service firm, formerly called Hanaro Telecom, illegally collected their personal information and provided it to a local telemarketing company without due consent.
The information included names, mobile phone numbers, birth dates and social security numbers.
The court said the company violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights to privacy and control over the release of their personal information, ordering it to pay 100,000-200,000 won to each of the 2,300 customers.
"The latest ruling took into account the possibility that the released private information could be used for criminal purposes, given prevalent voice phishing cases," Judge Ji Sang-mok of the Seoul Central District Court said in a verdict.
The court, however, dismissed compensation claims by 200 others, who were determined to have fully agreed to the collection and wide utilization of their private information when they signed contracts to subscribe to the firm's Internet service.
SK Broadband was found to have relayed personal data from its 500,000 customers from 2006-2007 to the telemarketing firm, identified only as Y, which peddled credit cards and Internet TV services provided by the high-speed Internet provider.
Similar lawsuits lodged by 18,000 SK Broadband customers are still pending, and the court will soon deliver rulings on them, the court said.
The latest court decision came amid growing worries over personal information leaks in the country with the highest Internet penetration rate in the world.
On Thursday, SK Communications Co., which is affiliated with the Internet connection provider, said its two popular Web sites have been hacked, compromising personal information of 35 million site users.
