ALBAWABA – The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), an independent data protection authority, said that Meta, the American multinational technology conglomerate, and the mother company of the Facebook platform, will be fined $15 million (21 billion won) for data collection practices without a legal basis.
Meta to pay $15M fine after South Korea fine
According to Reuters, The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), stated that the tech company collected data from nearly 980,000 South Korean Facebook users on a variety of topics, including religion, political views, and gender, without obtaining their consent.
The commission said: “Specifically, it has been found that (Meta) analyzed user behavior data such as pages they liked and advertisements they clicked on Facebook and created and managed advertising themes related to sensitive information.”
PIPC stated that Meta collected data from nearly 980,000 South Korean Facebook users on a variety of topics. (Shutterstock)
However, an official from Meta Korea stated that the company analyzed users' behavior data, such as pages they liked and ads they clicked on, without collecting personal information.
Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on the tech company, stated: “While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent.”
