The Supreme Court freed the operator of a web portal that submitted the personal information of its member, such as name, resident registration number, and telephone number, without any internal review to an investigative agency. On March 10, Department 1 of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Yi In-bok) remanded a claim by Cha (36) for damages against Naver, which the lower court had ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

On March 2010, Cha posted some scenes captured from the so-called "avoiding Yuna video" claiming that he was "reposting" from another source on a Naver cafe (community board). In the "avoiding Yuna video," figure skater Kim Yuna seems to be avoiding a hug from Yu In-chon, the minister of culture, sports and tourism at the time, when the Korean athletes returned from the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Former Minister Yu sued Cha for defamation and then withdrew his suit about a month later.

In the process, the police requested Naver for the personal information of Cha without a warrant. Naver handed the police Cha's name, resident registration number, cell phone number, Naver ID, the date he joined Naver, and his e-mail address, and the police used the information to make a house call. The Framework Act on Telecommunications simply stipulates that an operator may respond when receiving a request for information from an investigative agency. Cha argued that even if there was a request from an investigative agency, Naver, which should work to protect the personal information of its members, provided his information without due consideration, and filed a lawsuit asking the web portal to compensate for psychological damages.

In the first trial, the court sided with Naver claiming that it was difficult to recognize Naver's obligation to review the issue. But in the second trial, the court ruled that Naver should have reviewed whether or not to provide the information and the scope of the information they would provide through an agency exclusively overseeing the protection of confidential telecommunications information stipulated in the Framework Act on Telecommunications, and ordered the defendant to pay Cha 500,000 won as compensation.

The Supreme Court believed that the web portal operator had no obligation to review the details of providing information. The Supreme Court said, "If the operator does make a review, there is a bigger possibility of the charges leaking and of his privacy being violated further. If we recognize the operator's obligation to review whether or not to provide the information, we would be putting the responsibility of the state or the relevant law enforcement agency on the private citizen."

Some experts claim that this day's ruling gave wings to the Terrorism Prevention Act, which is at the center of controversy concerning the indiscriminate collection of information. Park Kyung-sin, a professor at Korea University Law School said, "Operators mechanically fulfilled the requests for information from investigative agencies claiming it was difficult for the operators to determine the seriousness of the matter. Unlike the Framework Act on Telecommunications, which only concerns basic personal information, the state can request for all personal information under the Terrorism Prevention Act, so I am concerned that the operators may provide all the personal information that they have."

Scenes from the so-called "avoiding Yuna video," which is an edited version of a KBS broadcast. The picture looks like former Minister Yu In-chon is being denied as he tries to embrace figure skater Kim Yuna. Scenes captured from a KBS broadcast