South Korea has fined Google and Facebook millions of dollars for privacy law violations.
Google and Facebook fined
The Personal Information Protection Commission said in a statement that it fined Google 69.2 billion won (about $50 million) while Meta was fined 30.8 billion won (about $22 million).
Google responded that it rejects the fine and will take action soon. A Meta spokesperson said, “We respect the committee’s decision but are confident that we are working with our clients in a manner consistent with the laws in the country.”
South Korea’s Privacy Commission said both Facebook and Google did not explicitly inform their users or obtain their prior consent. When collecting and analyzing behavioral information to infer their interests or use it in personalized advertising.
Those fines are the biggest punishment in South Korea for violating personal information protection laws. It is also the first penalty in the country related to the collection and use of behavioral information on dedicated online advertising platforms.
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It is reported that regulators in many countries have fined Google and Meta for failing to comply with data protection regulations in recent years.
In 2019, the French data protection watchdog issued its first GDPR fine of $57 million for violations of transparency and consent.
WhatsApp, owned by Meta, was fined $267 million for violating the GDPR transparency principle last year. Germany also ordered Meta to put an end to the collection of user data from third-party websites without their permission.
Finally, Google, too, suffered a lot last year after it was accused of abusing its dominance by the European Union’s antitrust watchdog. The company attempted to appeal the decision but lost and incurred a $2.42 billion fine.