South Korea’s Supreme Court Upholds Seven-Year Term for Phone Spyware Operator

South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld a seven-year prison sentence for the operator of a mobile surveillance service that enabled buyers to secretly monitor other people’s phones, affirming lower-court findings that the seller was a participant in the illegal interceptions rather than merely a software vendor.

The court’s second division, presided over by Justice Oh Kyung-mi, finalized the sentence against the operator, whose identity was withheld. The ruling also imposed a five-year suspension of qualifications and ordered the forfeiture of 1.97 billion won. The charges included violations of the Protection of Communications Secrets Act and information and communications network law.

Prosecutors said the operator and associates sold malicious applications from January 2019 through November 2024. Once covertly installed on a target’s phone, the software could intercept GPS locations, messages and call content in real time, store recordings on a server and make the information available to a paying subscriber. The application’s icon disappeared after installation, making detection difficult for the person being monitored.

Although the service was publicly presented as a location-tracking tool for monitoring children, investigators found that it was also promoted with search terms aimed at people seeking to monitor spouses or romantic partners. Subscriptions cost 500,000 won for one month, 1.5 million won for three months and 2.8 million won for six months.

The application was downloaded 6,008 times, according to the case record. The operators obtained about 120,000 illegally recorded call files and collected 3.39 billion won in revenue by providing unauthorized location-tracking services to 980 buyers.

The first trial sentenced the main operator to seven years in prison. An employee received an 18-month prison sentence along with a three-year suspension of qualifications, while a nominal chief executive received an 18-month term suspended for three years.

On appeal, the operator argued that buyers had made the recordings independently and that selling the application did not establish joint responsibility. The appellate court rejected that argument, finding an implicit conspiracy and concluding that the operator exercised functional control through an essential contribution to the offenses.

The court pointed to the application’s built-in recording and playback functions, advertising that emphasized interception capabilities and instructions given to customers on how to install the software covertly. It said the crimes severely restricted constitutionally protected privacy and freedom and carried exceptionally serious culpability. The Supreme Court found no legal error in that reasoning and dismissed the final appeal.