Sneaking into email accounts of spouses is illegal even if they include stories indicating his or her infidelity, a court ruled Thursday, putting privacy protection ahead of the right to know.
The Seoul Eastern District Court slapped a 42-year-old woman with a 300,000 won fine for opening her husband’s emails without his approval.
The court said the woman began monitoring her husband’s email accounts in 2006 after she secretly acquired his ID and passwords. One day, she found two suspicious email correspondences between her husband and someone she assumed was his mistress. She printed them out and then asked for a divorce.
The husband accused her of infringing upon his privacy.
Read more in The Korea Times.