Meta, the social platform Facebook's parent company, has been fined over US$15 million for violating South Korea's Personal Information Protection Act.
According to Seoul's Personal Information Protection Commission, Meta collected sensitive data from about 980,000 South Korean users on Facebook, including their religious and political views and whether they were married to someone of the same sex.
The Personal Information Protection Act classifies information about personal beliefs, political opinions, and sexual life as sensitive personal data that must be strictly protected and generally prohibits processing without consent.
The investigation revealed that Meta provided these sensitive personal details to about 4,000 advertisers without the users' consent and without implementing adequate protective measures. Meta also denied users the right to access their data on grounds not covered by the Personal Information Protection Act.
For websites that were deactivated or not activated, Meta failed to implement security measures such as deletion or closure, leading to the leakage of the personal data of 10 South Korean users.
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