Is it illegal to secretly view a spouse's Google Photos when their Google account is signed in?

Is it illegal to secretly view a spouse’s Google Photos when their Google account is signed in? The answer is yes. A man discovered that his wife’s Google account was signed into a laptop he shared with her after he separated from her and filed for divorce. He accessed her Google photos without her consent and then submitted some of the photos as evidence to the family court. He was charged for violations of Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection(hereafter referred to the “Act”). Specifically, he was found guilty of violating and disclosing their secrets, but not guilty of interfering with information and communication networks in the first and second trials.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court overturned the original verdict and sent to the case to the original court(Supreme Court, Nov. 14, 2024, 2021Do5555) The Supreme Court clarified that the service provider, Google Inc. granted access to his wife, not him and his access without her consent was against Google’s intent, which is likely to result in ruining the stability of the networks or the credibility of the information. The Supreme Court concludes that this is what the Act prevents, so the original judgment is found to have misunderstood the Act and therefore erred in its reasoning.