WAKEONE Vows Strong Legal Action After ALPHA DRIVE ONE’s Anxin Has Personal Information Leaked and Misused
WAKEONE, the agency behind ALPHA DRIVE ONE and ZEROBASEONE, has issued an official warning that it will pursue strong legal action over the unauthorized leak and misuse of member Anxin’s personal information.
The statement, released on September 18, confirms that Anxin’s private information was disseminated without consent on social media platforms and has since been used or altered by third parties.
What WAKEONE Said
In its statement, WAKEONE said it had confirmed the unauthorized leak and dissemination of member Anxin’s personal information on social media, as well as its subsequent misuse.
The agency framed the situation in stark terms, warning that it would show zero tolerance toward acts that violate its artists’ privacy and rights and calling on whoever is responsible to stop immediately.
Notably, the agency’s language went further than a general privacy complaint. WAKEONE specifically flagged the risk of impersonation, warning that using leaked material — including identification documents — to pose as the artist could cause harm not just to Anxin, but to uninvolved third parties as well.
That detail matters: it signals this isn’t simply a case of personal details circulating online, but one where the leaked material could plausibly be used to deceive people or open accounts, transactions, or interactions under Anxin’s name.
To pursue the matter, WAKEONE confirmed it is working with the law firm Shin & Kim, one of South Korea’s largest and most established firms, which the agency says is helping it review evidence and pursue “necessary legal action.”
The company added that it is continuously collecting related posts and materials, suggesting the investigation is active and ongoing rather than a one-off cease-and-desist.
Who Is Anxin?
Anxin — full name Zhou Anxin — is a Chinese-born member of ALPHA DRIVE ONE, the eight-member boy group formed through Mnet’s competition series Boys II Planet. Born in Shanghai on December 25, 2006, he’s 19 years old and has a longer entertainment résumé than most rookie idols his age.
He began as a child actor in China, appearing in the films Bloody Destiny (2015) and Love in the Front (2017), and built early recognition performing on Chinese state television specials, including CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala.
Before joining ALPHA DRIVE ONE, Anxin competed on the Korean survival show Make Mate 1 in 2024, finishing in 14th place, before returning the following year for Boys II Planet, where he placed second overall and secured his spot in the resulting group.
ALPHA DRIVE ONE — sometimes stylized as ALD1 — officially debuted in January 2026 under WAKEONE with their first mini-album, alongside members Junseo, Arno, Leo, Geonwoo, Sangwon, Xinlong, and Sanghyeon.
As one of the group’s more internationally recognized members going into debut, Anxin has drawn a sizable following across both Chinese and Korean fandom spaces — which may be part of why his personal information became a target in the first place.
Public figures with cross-border fanbases are frequently at higher risk of having personal details scraped, shared, and circulated across platforms that are harder for any single agency to monitor.
Not WAKEONE’s First Legal Warning This Year
This is far from an isolated incident for the agency. WAKEONE has now issued at least three formal legal warnings in 2026 concerning ALPHA DRIVE ONE and its sister group ZEROBASEONE.
In February, the agency announced it had retained law firm Sejong to pursue legal action against a wave of malicious comments, defamation, and false rumors targeting both groups, explicitly citing the exposure of private information as one of the behaviors it wanted stopped.
That statement came in the context of controversy surrounding member Kim Geonwoo, with WAKEONE stressing that protecting its artists’ rights and the honor was its top priority.
By May, WAKEONE said the February warning had turned into concrete legal steps.
The agency confirmed it had filed formal complaints in April and May over what it described as false information, personal attacks, the production and distribution of obscene content, defamation, and insults, adding that investigators had executed search and seizure warrants to identify suspects and were actively working with platforms to trace those responsible.
Seen against that backdrop, September’s statement about Anxin’s leaked personal information reads less like a one-off crisis and more like the latest chapter in a sustained, agency-led legal campaign — one that has moved from cease-and-desist language earlier in the year to actual search-and-seizure warrants by mid-year.
WAKEONE’s repeated invocation of established, large law firms (Sejong, and now Shin & Kim) also suggests the agency is treating this as a long-term enforcement effort rather than a single incident response.
Why This Matters Beyond ALPHA DRIVE ONE
South Korea has some of the strictest personal-data protection laws in the entertainment industry globally, including provisions under the Personal Information Protection Act that criminalize unauthorized collection, distribution, or misuse of another person’s private data — with penalties that can include both fines and imprisonment depending on severity and intent.
Cases involving identification documents specifically tend to draw heavier scrutiny, since ID theft or impersonation can extend the harm well beyond reputational damage into financial or legal jeopardy for the victim.
For idols in particular, the risk isn’t abstract. Personal information leaks have periodically surfaced across the K-pop industry — sometimes tied to obsessive fan behavior (commonly referred to as sasaeng activity), sometimes to data breaches at third-party vendors, and sometimes to deliberate targeting during periods of controversy or high visibility.
Agencies have increasingly responded by publicizing their legal actions rather than handling them quietly, partly as a deterrent and partly to reassure fanbases that artists are being protected.
WAKEONE’s statement fits that pattern. By naming Shin & Kim, describing an active evidence-collection process, and explicitly warning against redistribution or alteration of the leaked material, the agency appears to be trying to cut off further spread of the information as quickly as possible, rather than pursuing legal action only after the fact.
What Happens Next
As of this writing, WAKEONE has not disclosed the scale of the leak, how the information was initially obtained, or whether any suspects have been identified.
Given the agency’s track record this year — moving from public warnings to formal complaints to search-and-seizure warrants within a matter of months — a similar escalation pattern is plausible if the situation isn’t resolved quickly.
Fans and followers of ALPHA DRIVE ONE are being asked, in effect, to do their part by not sharing, saving, or engaging with any of the leaked material, as doing so could constitute a separate act of dissemination under Korean law.
WAKEONE said it will continue closely monitoring the situation and provide updates as its legal process develops.