South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has fined Meta 21.62 billion Won, roughly $15.6 million, for illegally collecting sensitive information from Facebook users and sharing it with advertisers without explicit consent. Approximately 980,000 users’ data was shared with some 4,000 advertisers, who used the provided data for targeted ads and customised service offerings.
The PIPC’s investigation found that Meta collected sensitive information, including religious and political views and same-sex marital status, via Facebook profiles and passed it off to advertisers. Behavioural information, such as the pages that users ‘liked’ on Facebook and the ads they clicked on, was analysed to “create and operate advertising topics related to sensitive information like specific religions, homosexuality, transgenders, North Korean defectors, etc.”
The PIPC also looked into complaints of data leaks, where hackers used fake IDs on account recovery pages to request password resets, resulting in the leak of personal information for at least 10 Korean users. Additionally, complaints of Meta rejecting Korean users’ requests to view personal information on grounds that it is not subject to a request for viewing under the Personal Information Protection Act were also noted.
While Meta thought the Personal Information Protection Act protected it, the PIPC disagreed, stating that “since the Enforcement Decree of the Protection Act (Article 41, Paragraph 1) stipulates that the retention and use period of personal information, the status of provision to third parties, and the fact and content of consent to the processing of personal information are subject to inspection, the Personal Information Protection Commission determined that there was no justifiable reason for Meta to reject the request for inspection.”
During the investigation, Meta did take some “voluntary corrective measures” including stopping the collection of sensitive information from profiles and destroying advertising topics corresponding to sensitive information. Meta’s South Korea office told the Associated Press that it’s looking into the matter and will “carefully review” the PIPC’s decision.
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