Social media business Meta was penalized 21.6 billion won ($15 million) by South Korea’s privacy authority on Tuesday for unlawfully gathering private information from Facebook users, including information on their sexual orientation and political beliefs, and disclosing it to thousands of advertisers. It was the most recent of several sanctions imposed on Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they tightened their examination of the company’s handling of personal data. Meta also owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
After a four-year investigation, the Personal Information Protection Commission of South Korea found that, between July 2018 and March 2022, Meta illegally gathered private data about approximately 980,000 Facebook users, including their political beliefs, religion, and whether or not they were in same-sex relationships.
According to the report, the business gave the information to over 4,000 advertisers.
Information pertaining to sexual behavior, political opinions, and personal beliefs is strictly protected by South Korea’s privacy law, which also forbids businesses from collecting or using such data without the express consent of the individual.
The commission said that Meta obtained private data by examining the pages that Facebook users liked or the ads they clicked on.
According to Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission that oversaw the inquiry into Meta, the company classified advertising to find customers interested in themes like certain religions, same-sex and transgender difficulties, and issues pertaining to North Korean escapees.
“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,” Lee said.
Lee added that by neglecting to put in place fundamental security procedures like deleting or disabling dormant sites, Meta jeopardized the privacy of Facebook users. As a result, hackers were able to request password resets for other Facebook users’ accounts and create false identities using inactive pages. According to Lee, at least ten Facebook users in South Korea had data breaches as a result of Meta approving these requests without conducting adequate verification.
European authorities fined Meta more than $100 million in September for a 2019 security breach that left user passwords momentarily available in an unencrypted format.
Although it did not immediately offer more comment, Meta’s South Korean office stated that it will “carefully review” the commission’s decision.
The commission levied the largest fines ever levied in South Korea for infringement of privacy laws in 2022, fining Google and Meta a total of 100 billion won ($72 million) for following users’ online activities without their knowledge and utilizing their data for targeted ads.
According to the commission, the two businesses failed to get consumers’ permission or provide clear notice before collecting their data while they were using websites or services other than their own platforms. In order to give people more discretion over whether or not to share information about their online activities, it mandated that the corporations implement an “easy and clear” consent process.
In 2020, the commission also fined Meta 6.7 billion won ($4.8 million) for giving third parties access to its users’ personal data without their authorization. (AP)
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