Cybersecurity Policy Report, Meta Faces $16M Privacy Fine in South Korea, (Nov 5, 2024)
Meta Platforms, Inc., faces a fine of 21.6 billion won ($16 million) after South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) decided that Meta’s Facebook social media platform had violated the nation’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
Meta violated PIPA by collecting sensitive personal information, including religious and political views and the same-sex marital status of around 980,000 South Korean users, and providing the data to advertisers for targeted ads, the PIPC said today in a news release.
“Specifically, it was found that behavioral information, such as the pages that users ‘liked’ on Facebook and the ads they clicked on, was analyzed to create and operate advertising topics related to sensitive information (specific religions, homosexuality, transgenders, North Korean defectors, etc.),” the PIPC said, according to a translation of the Korean language news release.
Under PIPA, “sensitive” personal information can’t be collected without specific consent from users, the PIPC noted. In addition to the fine, the PIPC ordered Meta to stop collecting sensitive personal information and delete data already collected.
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