GS Caltex being sued for data leak

GS Caltex Co., South Korea’s second-largest oil refiner, is facing a class action suit brought by 500 clients seeking compensation for a recent leak of their private data, their representative said. Customers are asked to provide their personal information when making oil mileage cards at gas stations. The plaintiffs represent a fraction of some 11 million people whose personal information was leaked by the refiner’s employees in the country’s largest ever data leak case. “GS Caltex, which is responsible for protecting clients’ personal information, failed to prevent the leak which put so many individual clients at risk,” the plaintiffs said in a court document submitted to the Seoul Central District Court and released by their representative, Lee In-cheol. The suit charges GS Caltex with negligence and seeks one million won (US$863) in compensation for each client, or 500 million won (US$431,248) in total. (September 10, 2008)