South Korea imposes record $72m fine on Google, Meta over privacy violations
Seoul, Sep 14 (EFE).- South Korea fined Google and Meta 100 billion won (almost $72 million) on Wednesday for gathering consumers’ personal data for internet advertising without their consent.
The privacy watchdog said in a statement that it approved a 69.2 billion won fine on Google and a 30.8 billion won charge on Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram.
The Personal Information Protection Committee said it is “the largest penalty” imposed for violating South Korean privacy laws.
The commission found that neither Google nor Meta had informed or obtained prior consent from users before collecting and using their data and online behavior for targeted advertisements.
The two Silicon Valley companies used that data “to infer user interests for targeted advertising.”
According to the PIPC statement, more than 82 percent of Google users and more than 98 percent of Meta users in South Korea suffered privacy violations by the two companies.
It included browsing histories, app usage, and purchase history of users.
The watchdog ordered the two US tech giants to inform and obtain consent from their South Korean users on collecting and using their data. EFE
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