- South Korea fined Meta Platforms $15.67 million for improper data collection practices.
- Meta collected sensitive data from nearly 1 million users, sharing it with advertisers without consent.
- Meta allegedly denied users’ requests to access personal information and faced a data leak.
South Korea’s data protection agency ordered Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, to pay a fine of 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million) for gathering sensitive user data without proper consent. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) highlighted privacy violations impacting around 980,000 South Korean users, reports Reuters.
Collection of Sensitive Data
The PIPC report claims Meta accessed sensitive user data, including religion, political stance, and sexual orientation, without clear user consent.
“Meta obtained information from about 980,000 South Korean Facebook users on issues such as their religion, political views, and sexuality,” the PIPC stated.
Data Shared with Thousands of Advertisers
Meta reportedly shared this data with around 4,000 advertisers, allowing targeted ads based on sensitive themes.
The agency noted, “Specifically, it has been found that (Meta) analysed user behaviour data such as pages they liked and advertisements they clicked on Facebook and created and managed advertising themes related to sensitive information.”
Targeted User Profiles Based on Sensitive Information
The commission disclosed that users were categorized by sensitive criteria, including those identified as North Korean defectors, certain religious affiliations, and the LGBTQ+ community.
This type of profiling was cited as a significant breach of user privacy.
Meta’s Response and Data Access Restrictions
Meta Korea declined to comment on the PIPC findings.
The company also reportedly “declined a request by users to access personal information,” further infringing on users’ rights.
In addition to unauthorized data collection, Meta failed to prevent a security breach where information on about 10 South Korean users was exposed to hackers.
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Source: Reuters
