South Korea fined Meta $1.5 billion for illegally collecting sensitive data of Facebook users. The country's data protection agency has alleged that the company collected user data and shared it with advertisers.
Seoul's Personal Information Protection Commission said on Tuesday that Facebook collected information about the political views, religious beliefs and personal sex lives of about 980,000 Korean Facebook users and shared it with advertisers. The data was then used by 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea has restrictions on the use of such information. It was decided to fine the country's Meta 15.6 million dollars for breaking this rule.
According to the South Korean agency, Meta has been instructed to establish a legal basis for the processing of sensitive data, implement security measures and respond sincerely to users' requests for data access.
The commission says Facebook uses meta-analysis to analyze information about user behavior, such as who liked which pages and which ads they clicked on. It then creates and manages ad themes related to this sensitive information.
The company also says it uses meta-categorization to identify users interested in topics such as certain religions, gay, transgender issues and people fleeing North Korea.
Meta has also refused users' requests to access their personal information. Meta also failed to protect Facebook users from hackers. For this, the personal information of about 10 South Korean citizens has been leaked.
Meta has offices in South Korea. They say they will “carefully review” the commission's decision. However, the company's South Korean spokesperson did not comment on the fine.
A few days ago, Brazil filed a 500 million dollar compensation case against Meta and TikTok. The lawsuit was filed after the companies failed to take adequate measures to ensure the safety of minors.
References: Reuters
