South Korea has fined Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc more than US$71 million collectively for gathering users’ personal information without consent for tailored ads, regulators said yesterday, the country’s highest-ever data protection fines.
Investigations into the two US technology giants found they had been “collecting and analyzing” data on their users, and monitoring their use of Web sites and applications, the South Korean Personal Information Protection Commission said.
The data was used to “infer the users’ interests or used for customized online advertisements,” the commission said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Neither Google nor Meta had clearly informed South Korean users of this practice or obtained their consent in advance, the commission added.
As a result, Google was fined 69.2 billion won (US$49.7 million) and Meta 30.8 billion won.
“It is the largest fine for the violation of the Personal Information Protection Act,” the commission said in a statement.
Regulators said that the majority of the users in South Korea — 82 percent for Google and 98 percent for Meta — had unknowingly allowed them to collect data on their online use.
“It can be said that the possibility and the risk of infringement of the rights of the users are high,” the statement said.
Last year, South Korea fined Google nearly US$180 million for abusing its dominance in the mobile operating systems and app markets, saying it was hampering market competition.
Google did not have an immediate comment.
“While we respect the commission’s decision, we are confident that we work with our clients in a legally compliant way that meets the processes required by local regulations,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“As such, we do not agree with the commission’s decision and will be open to all options including seeking a ruling from the court,” the spokesperson added.
Giant US tech companies are regularly criticized for dominating markets by elbowing out rivals, with multiple governments globally seeking to rein them in.
The EU has slammed Google with record antitrust penalties, and also gone after Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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