Weverse Company admits to unauthorized data leaks by an employee, apologizes, and promises to improve data management practices.

HYBE's subsidiary Weverse Company has caused a problem by leaking personal information of RIIZE fans without permission. Today (5th), Weverse Company's CEO Choi Jun-won revealed through a Weverse announcement, "Recently, it has been confirmed that an internal employee of Weverse Company leaked others' information without permission and attempted to use it for personal purposes. This is recognized as a significant issue that goes beyond the individual misconduct of the relevant member and carries great responsibility for the mismanagement of Weverse Company’s members. I sincerely apologize to the fans who trusted and used Weverse Company." An employee, Mr. A, who was working at Weverse Company, leaked the personal information of a fan, Mr. B, who recently applied for a RIIZE fan signing event to an acquaintance. This fact became clear when Mr. B posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account on December 31 last year, stating, "I demand improvements to the fairness of event management and the overall internal personal information management system." According to Mr. B, Weverse Company initially explained that there was no leak of personal information except for names, but later acknowledged that additional personal information had been leaked. Mr. B emphasized, "I was offered a cash compensation equivalent to 100,000 won (about 1,000 yen), but this felt like compensation to obscure the essence of the problem, which is unnecessary. What I seek is not compensation but structural improvements to prevent recurrence." Ultimately, Weverse Company issued a delayed apology five days after Mr. B raised the issue. Weverse Company explained, "This incident was confirmed during the process of face-to-face, written, and forensic investigation of the misconduct of a certain member (Mr. A). An employee from the department responsible for fan events inquired about whether a specific applicant had won the fan signing event, leading to a conversation that confirmed additional information, including the birth year, besides the name. The name and birth year information were shared in a private KakaoTalk group chat room consisting of six friends of the same artist. This employee attempted to intervene in the event selection but it was confirmed that no actual intervention or changes were made, and the relevant applicant ultimately won and participated in the event." According to Weverse Company, Mr. A not only leaked Mr. B's personal information related to the fan signing event but also captured and shared the list of winners for a specific program recording event, including the names, birth dates, and phone numbers of 30 winners in the same private group chat room. Weverse Company stated, "We are conducting an in-depth investigation into whether there were any business disruptions or illegal acts to allow specific individuals to participate in fan events, including the program recording events that the relevant employee was responsible for, and we have requested a thorough investigation from the investigative authorities." Furthermore, Weverse Company revealed, "In addition to the aforementioned content, numerous internal regulation violations and illegal acts, such as breach of trust and business disruption, were confirmed during the investigation process. As a result, the company immediately removed the relevant member from their duties, referred the matter to the personnel committee, and submitted a criminal complaint. While strictly taking measures in accordance with legal procedures, we plan to sincerely cooperate with any requests for investigation from the authorities in the future." Weverse Company, a subsidiary of HYBE, is a fan communication platform used by over 50 million K-POP fans. Not only artists affiliated with HYBE but also many singers and actors from various agencies publish content and communicate with fans through live broadcasts and comments.