The operator of an illegal paid smartphone surveillance app, identified only as A, has received a final seven-year prison sentence for advertising that the app could catch cheating spouses and for obtaining other people’s call recordings and location data without consent.
The Supreme Court’s Second Division, with Justice Oh Kyung-mi as the presiding justice, recently upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced A to seven years in prison, a five-year suspension of eligibility for public office and forfeiture of 1.974 billion won, legal sources said on the 4th. A had been indicted on charges of violating the Protection of Communications Secrets Act, the Information and Communications Network Act and the Location Information Act.
A, the actual operator of the business, and the other accomplices were sent to trial on charges of selling illegal wiretapping apps to record other people’s conversations and of collecting and providing location data without the consent of those being tracked, from January 2019 to November 2024.
The program worked by having buyers install a “parent app” on their own phones and a “child app” on the devices of the people they wanted to monitor.
The “child app” in particular was designed so that no installation icon appeared on the phone screen, making it difficult for the other party to notice that the app had been installed.
Once installed, the app activated a call recording function that transmitted and stored not only conversations but also GPS location data and text messages on the company’s data servers. Buyers could view the material in real time.
A and the others advertised the app with phrases such as “cheating husband” and “lawsuit against the other woman.” The service cost 500,000 won for one month and 2.8 million won for six months, and they also paid referral fees to private detective agencies to bring in customers.
A was accused of conspiring with buyers in this way to obtain 119,713 recordings of calls between other people in October and November 2024 alone.
A also faced charges of distributing malicious programs that disrupt the operation of information and communications networks, by providing the program to 6,008 users.
In addition, A was accused of collecting and storing the location data of 980 people under surveillance without their consent and of earning 3.396 billion won in profits while running a location-based service business without filing a required report.
The first trial court found A guilty and handed down a prison term. The appeals court also recognized that A had provided specific guidance on how to install and use the app while selling it and had personally managed the servers.
The appeals court said that “a sequential and tacit conspiracy is recognized between A and the buyers,” adding that A “was not a mere accomplice but exercised functional control over the act through an essential contribution to the crime.”
The court also noted that A “committed a crime that severely restricts the privacy and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution, and the culpability is very grave. The distribution lasted six years and the proceeds reached 3.3 billion won, making the conduct highly blameworthy.”
The Supreme Court likewise found no error of law in the lower court’s judgment and dismissed A’s appeal.
#SupremeCourt#SpyApp#Privacy#Wiretapping#KoreaLaw#Surveillance
Original reporting by Cho Su-yeon for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreign sources are based on Korean-language reports and may not reflect exact original wording.
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