Suspect's Personal Information Spread Online
"What If Innocent People Are Affected?" Concerns Raised
On the 6th, a man in his 20s who killed his girlfriend in a building near Gangnam Station in Seocho-gu, Seoul, known as a "perfect scorer on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and medical student," has had his personal information spread online. The Seoul Seocho Police Station urgently arrested and is investigating the suspect, identified as a man in his 20s named A, on the afternoon of the 7th. According to the police investigation, A has admitted to the crime.
A is accused of stabbing his girlfriend B to death on the rooftop of a 15-story building in front of Exit 9 of Gangnam Station, Seocho-gu, at around 5:20 p.m. the previous day. Evidence also shows that he planned the crime in advance, including calling B to the crime scene two hours before the incident.
Initially, the police responded to a report that "someone was about to jump," and rescued A from the rooftop. However, when A said he had left a bag containing medicine on the rooftop, the police found B's body while checking the area. The "medicine" A mentioned was investigated and found not to be narcotics.
During this process, it was revealed that A was a prestigious university medical student who had achieved a perfect score on the CSAT, which led to attempts online to dig into his personal information based on this detail.
Some netizens identified a man who had been featured in a past interview for achieving a perfect CSAT score as A, sharing information such as his residential area, the academy he attended, and media interviews. A social networking service (SNS) account displaying his affiliated university and student ID number was also exposed.
However, some expressed concerns about the adverse effects of such indiscriminate "personal information assumptions." Among netizens, issues were raised such as "What if an innocent person is identified as the culprit?" and "What crime have acquaintances or family committed?" Voices also emerged worrying about secondary harm, saying, "The victim's personal information might also be revealed."
Meanwhile, the police are investigating the detailed circumstances of the incident, believing that dating violence led to the murder.
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