BTS V was the latest Kpop idol to fall victim to unscrupulous individuals leaking their personal information online. V's passport information was reportedly leaked by a YouTuber.
According to a report by All Kpop, a YouTuber who was believed to be a BTS fan, posted a copy of what appeared to be V's passport information. The document was in Chinese and carried his details such as his real name, Kim Taehyung, resident registration number and other details.
ARMYs were outraged over such blatant violation of V's privacy and stormed the YouTuber's channel with negative comments, shaming the uploader and getting him to take down the content because it violates the law. However, the content remained available despite moves to take it down.
Upon closer inspection, there were some noticeable differences to the document compared to typical passports. The issue and the expiry date was a red flag that the document was not an official one as the YouTuber claimed. Unlike regular passports that have a fixed term of one, five or ten years, the validity date of V's purported travel document has a non-standard term.
V was not the only celebrity to fall victim to rabid fans sharing idols' personal information online. It can be recalled that when EXO members Chanyeol and Sehun traveled to Vietnam last year, their passport information was compromised by an airport staff member who took photos of their travel documents.
According to a report by Soompi, Chanyeol and Sehun arrived at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi in January to perform for the 2020 Kpop Super Concert at the My Dinh National Stadium.
However, an airport staff member reportedly snapped photos of the EXO members' passports in secret and uploaded the information on social media through a Facebook post. The staff member said he shared the information to a friend in private and it was unintentionally spread to the public.
Because of his unprofessional conduct and violation of the idols' privacy, the staff was later terminated from his employment.
TWICE's Dahyun was also a victim of a violation of her privacy when a fan snapped a picture of her passport after she was required to present the document at a security checkpoint at Korea's Gimpo International Airport.
As a result, Dahyun's personal information was spread online. JYP, in a statement, vowed to take legal action against the fan for the violation of Personal Information Protection Act and other laws.
