South Korea fines Meta $15.7 million for data misuse

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) fined Meta $15.7 million for illegally collecting and sharing personal data from approximately 980,000 Facebook users. The collected data included sensitive details regarding users’ sexual orientation and political and religious viewpoints. 

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The regulator claimed that Meta gathered behavioral data from users who interacted with external websites and apps, as well as users' ‘liked’ pages and ads they showed interest in.  According to the PIPC, the company then used this personal information for advertising purposes, sharing the data with thousands of third parties without obtaining proper consent or offering transparent information in the company’s policies. The PIPC investigation also identified security vulnerabilities that Meta had not addressed, which enabled hackers to access inactive accounts. 

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This isn’t the first time Meta has been fined by South Korean regulators, who released a statement regarding their intention to continue enforcing data regulation and monitoring companies’ conduct.

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