'Wangsa-nam' cannot even be rented for 5,000 won provided; 'Re-subscription' induced.. TVING's 'trickery' compensation plan spreads to class-action lawsuits [★FOCUS]

*This content was translated by AI.

OTT platform TVING, which caused a massive personal information leak affecting approximately 39.45 million people, has begun accepting compensation applications from affected customers. However, dissatisfaction with this compensation policy is growing.

TVING will accept compensation applications from members whose personal information was leaked via its official website and mobile app starting at 10 a.m. on the 7th until the 30th. Once applied for, compensation will be distributed sequentially starting at 10 a.m. on October 6.

The specific compensation includes: ▲One-year free enrollment in hacking/phishing peace-of-mind insurance (DB Insurance) ▲Three months of TVING Premium viewing functionality ▲TVING Points worth 5,000 won (50P, usable for purchasing content within TVING) ▲Entertainment benefits (choice between one-month Wave ad-supported standard subscription or a 5,000-won CGV combo discount coupon). TVING estimates the perceived value per person for the entire compensation package, including insurance, at approximately 20,000 won.

CGV discount coupons can be used until December 31 this year and will automatically expire thereafter. Wave subscription coupons must also be registered by December 31 and are valid for one month from the registration date.

The Premium viewing functionality supports up to 4K resolution, allows up to 400 content downloads, and enables simultaneous viewing on up to four devices over a three-month period.

However, it does not provide the Premium subscription itself (monthly fee: 17,000 won). Users of ad-supported standard (5,500 won/month), basic (9,500 won/month), or standard (13,500 won/month) plans can continue using content available under their current subscriptions while upgrading only the video quality, download count, and number of simultaneous devices to Premium-level standards. Even if ad-supported standard members receive the Premium viewing functionality, they must still watch advertisements as before.

TVING Points 50P are points worth 5,000 won usable for individual content purchases. Members who cannot receive the 'Premium viewing functionality' compensation using a Premium subscription as of the 30th will additionally be granted 50P TVING Points. In this case, they effectively receive a total of 100P, equivalent to 10,000 won in points.

Compensation can be applied for only once per account. Once the application is completed, the selected compensation item cannot be changed.

Although former members who have canceled their subscriptions are included in the compensation target, they must 're-subscribe' to TVING to receive compensation. Regarding this, TVING explained that re-subscription is unavoidable for identity verification and information matching purposes.

However, this compensation plan has become increasingly difficult to avoid criticism for ultimately inducing former customers who left due to the massive personal information leak to re-subscribe. Additionally, complaints from affected consumers are mounting over the need to re-enter personal information and undergo identity verification processes to apply for compensation, as well as the requirement that users must manually apply rather than receiving automatic disbursement.

This is because the items offered as compensation are structured in a way that effectively leads to paid subscription inducement. In the case of 'Premium viewing functionality provision,' former members who have re-subscribed but do not have an active content subscription cannot utilize this benefit alone. To actually use this benefit, they must separately subscribe to one of the ad-supported standard, basic, or standard plans. Accordingly, unlike other items that require manual application, TVING has set only this 'Premium viewing functionality provision' as 'automatically applied.'

TVING Points 50P, worth 5,000 won, are also insufficient to purchase even one latest content item. For the latest movie 'The Man Who Lives with the King,' 55P (worth 5,500 won) must be paid.

This is why criticism has arisen that this is a 'marketing trick' using compensation as an excuse. Affected customers are expressing anger with comments such as: "Is this compensation or marketing?", "I filed for a class-action lawsuit on the day the compensation plan was announced," "Shouldn't it be automatically provided instead of requiring application?", "If you're joining the lawsuit, I recommend not accepting it," "It's been so long since I canceled, and everything was stolen. Now they want me to re-subscribe just for this? This is infuriating," "What is this? It's ultimately pushing payment," "The compensation plan is extremely shady. Better to get at least 10,000 won as damages through a class-action lawsuit," "Why apply? They should just give it automatically," "Because of this strange compensation, the number of people joining the group lawsuit must have increased even more," "Wow, they got completely hacked and now what are they doing?", "They make you pay 5,500 won but only give a 5,000-won coupon. This is unbelievable," "How shameless," "They got hacked themselves, yet I, the victim, have to apply?" etc., unable to contain their anger.

Earlier, in May, the Ministry of Science and ICT's joint public-private investigation team announced that personal information from a total of 39.54 million accounts was leaked due to TVING's security breach: 22.06 million active accounts, 8.5 million dormant accounts, 8.87 million canceled accounts, and 110,000 test accounts.

In other words, all account information held by TVING was leaked. The leaked information included names, dates of birth, resident registration numbers, email addresses, linked information (CI), payment history, and more.

Accordingly, at a cyber security breach briefing held on the 3rd at Korea Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, Choi Ju-hui (CEO) bowed its head and stated, "We deeply regret this incident and will fundamentally rebuild our entire information security system from the ground up."

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*This content was translated by AI.