South Korea Fines IDR 247 Billion For Collection Of Sensitive Data For Facebook Users

Meta share Korean user data with advertisers (photo: dock.unsplash)

JAKARTA - The South Korean government has fined Meta, the company that oversees Instagram and Threads, of 21.62 billion won (Rp247 billion). This fine was set for Tuesday, November 5.

Quoting from a Reuters report, Meta had to pay a fine because the company had collected sensitive user data and gave it to advertisers. This action was taken without following a solid legal basis.

South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission explained that the data collected by Meta came from 980,000 Facebook users. This data includes religious issues, political views, and sexuality discussed by hundreds of thousands of these accounts.

All of the data collected certainly benefits advertisers. According to the agency, this sensitive data has been used by more than 4,000 advertisers, but Meta has never asked its users for approval.

"It was found that (Meta) analyzed user behavior data such as the pages they liked and the ads they clicked on Facebook and created and managed ad themes related to sensitive information," the commission said.

For example, this data can show whether its user is a defector from North Korea. Meta also takes information such as what religion it uses and identifies if its users are gay and transgender.

This issue is very sensitive according to the South Korean government that they provide fines deemed in accordance with Meta violations. Apart from sensitive data, the commission said that Meta had failed to prevent data from 10 residents who were leaked due to hackers.