South Korea has imposed a fine of $15.67 million (sixty-two billion won) on Facebook`s business enterprise, Meta, following unauthorized collection of customers` sensitive facts. The Asian country`s watchdog, Seoul Data Protection Agency, claimed that Meta gave the details to advertisers without a criminal basis.
According to the Personal Information Protection Commission, Meta collected facts from more than 980,000 South Korean Facebook customers while at the same time failing to get their consent. Facts regarding religion, political views, and sexuality have been collected from customers` profiles.
The enterprise affirmed that the tech giant supplied the details to approximately 4,000 advertisers. “Specifically, it has been found that (Meta) analyzed user behaviour data such as pages they liked and advertisements they clicked on Facebook and created and managed advertising themes related to sensitive information,” the enterprise said.
“This included users being categorized for example as being North Korean defectors, following a certain religion, or identifying as a transgender or gay person,,” the enterprise added.
The watchdog also talked about the choice to fine Meta for its moves. It mentioned that it would set an example for different overseas operators inside the country. This is to make certain good enough compliance with guidelines regarding the processing of touchy facts.
“The choice is massive in that they make certain that overseas operators supplying worldwide offerings should follow the duties mentioned in (South Korea`s) Protection Act concerning the processing of touchy facts,” it said.
Meta has been additionally accused of unfairly declining a request with the aid of using customers to get right of entry to non-public facts at the same time as failing to prevent data on approximately 10 South Koreans from being leaked with the aid of using hackers.
It also opined that it “additionally ordered the business enterprise to set up criminal grounds for processing sensitive facts, put in force protection measures, and reply diligently to customers` requests for get right of entry to to their facts”.
