Civic hackers have been contributing to the national and international crisis mitigation efforts as first responders in the digital world. As “a form of data activism and advocacy” (Schrock, 2016), civic hacking in South Korea is at the center of the Electronic democracy (e-Democracy) discourse. Civic hackers, by specifically committing to utilizing open data for digital governance and public service, are key players when urgent civic intervention is needed. To examine civic hackers’ essential role in democracy, particularly in crises, this study investigates how one subset of civic hackers in South Korea -- crisis mappers -- responded to the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and used data about the location of confirmed coronavirus cases and movement paths from their travel history. Using in-depth interviews with civic hackers and open data activists, this study focuses on the civic hackers’ decision-making factors and challenges in mapping geospatial information of confirmed patients. The study analyzes the tensions related to the right to know and privacy, particularly as the civic hackers’ projects continued to develop in correspondence with social and political reactions to the evolving pandemic situation. The results show that while there was much excitement for the work at the early stage of the pandemic, interest waned because of 1) lack of capability for data processing due to fragmentation of data sources and an excessive amount of data from the first mass infection, 2) degradation of information value due to lack of consistency and completeness of data, and 3) concerns about potential damage by stigmatization to local businesses caused by data visualizations indicating the location of the confirmed patient visit. These factors ultimately lead civic hackers to be interested in focusing their work on other topics -- ones where they felt they could have a greater impact. Finally, by reflecting on crisis mapping projects and exploring the ongoing situations both in the public sector and the civic sector in South Korea, the study highlights the importance of data ethics to empower citizens’ capabilities and to practice their autonomy in the digital transformation of governance. To envision how civic hacking can contribute to social reform in democracy, this work makes some recommendations on how we can build a more resilient and inclusive society with a collaboration of civic hacking networks, government, and local communities. The first recommendation urges the government to ensure data stewardship for open government data ethics. The second recommendation argues that to achieve collective action led by citizens requires sustainable civic networks to shape and audit an open democratic environment.

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