Seoul’s data protection regulator has fined Meta Platforms 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million). The company obtained private user information and shared it with advertisers without authorization.
The Personal Information Protection Commission stated on Tuesday that about 980,000 South Korean Facebook users provided information about their sexual orientation, political beliefs, and religion. They did this without obtaining consent from the users.
According to the firm, about 4,000 advertisers exploited the information after that.
An official from Meta Korea chose not to comment.
“Specifically, it has been found that (Meta) analyzed user behavior data such as pages they liked and advertisements they clicked on Facebook and created and managed advertising themes related to sensitive information,” the agency stated.
According to the agency, this includes users being classified as, for instance, North Korean defectors, members of a certain faith, or those who identify as LGBT or transgender.
According to the agency, Meta also unjustly denied a user’s request to view personal data and did nothing to stop hackers from leaking information about ten South Koreans.
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