South Korea fines Meta $15.7 million for illegally sharing user data

South Korea has fined social media giant Meta 21.62 billion won (approximately $15.67 million) for illegally collecting user data and sharing it with third parties.

The South Korean Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) stated that Meta collected sensitive personal information from around 980,000 South Korean Facebook users and shared it with advertisers without their consent.

The collected data included sensitive information such as users' political views, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation.

Meta allegedly passed this data on to about 4,000 advertisers and used it for targeted ads, violating user privacy.

This move, which breaches South Korea's personal data protection laws, serves as a warning to other countries about the data collection practices of tech giants.

Meta was also criticized for rejecting users' requests to review their personal data, further violating South Korea's data security laws.

This fine increases global pressure on Meta regarding data privacy and underscores the importance of compliance with South Korea's stringent data protection laws.