In 2014, while attending a school in North America, she briefly visited Busan, Korea, accompanied by her parents for nose and eye cosmetic surgeries.

They left the country after explicitly asking the hospital not to use her photos.

However, in March 2015 when they returned to the hospital for a touch-up procedure, they found before-and-after images of her eyes in the hospital’s promotional leaflet.

They said that although the photo only showed her eyes, it was easy to identify.

The student and her parents pressed charges to the Busan Police, claiming the hospital had taken the photos saying it would only be used for internal evaluation and for educational records. She had never agreed to their commercial use.

The head surgeon of the hospital explained that there had been a misunderstanding on the hospital’s part due to the absence of paper work that clarified the Japanese student’s aversion to exposure.

He said the hospital had so far only used photos of patients who gave permission, and that the photos never left the hospital premises as they were only printed in internal leaflets.

The leaflets have now all been destroyed and the hospital is trying to reach a settlement with the patient.

According to the Korean medical law, exposing a patient’s medical information without permission is a criminal act that is punishable by a prison term of maximum three years or a fine of maximum 10 million won ($8,800).

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)