South Korea Fines Meta $15.67M for Sharing Private User Data with Advertisers.

Representational Image | Source: freemalaysiatoday

Meta has been fined 21.62 billion won (about $15.67 million) by South Korea’s privacy agency for collecting sensitive information from Facebook users and giving it to advertisers without permission. The country’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) found that Meta gathered details on the religious beliefs, political views, and sexual orientation of around 980,000 South Korean Facebook users and shared this data with 4,000 advertisers.

The PIPC explained that Meta tracked users’ activity on Facebook, including the pages they liked and the ads they clicked, to organize users by topics related to these private areas. Some categories created for users included religion, sexual identity, or status as a former North Korean citizen.

According to the commission, Meta used this personal information without approval, which breaks privacy laws. They also pointed out that Meta failed to protect inactive accounts. Hackers managed to reset passwords on these accounts using fake IDs, and Meta accepted these fake documents without proper checks. This led to personal data leaks for 10 South Korean users.

The PIPC added that they will keep an eye on Meta’s actions to ensure it follows privacy rules, protecting people’s information. Meta responded by saying it will “carefully review” the commission’s decision.