South Korea has ordered Facebook owner Meta Platforms to pay a $15.67 million fine after it was found to have collected sensitive user data and provided it to advertisers without a legal basis, according to Seoul's data protection agency.
The US tech giant reportedly obtained information from about 980,000 South Korean Facebook users about matters such as religion, political views and sexuality, the Personal Information Protection Commission said in a statement.
According to the agency, the information was then used by about 4,000 advertisers, Reuters writes, according to Telegraph.
"Specifically, it was discovered that Meta analyzed user behavioral data, such as the pages they liked and the ads they clicked on on Facebook, and created and managed advertising topics related to sensitive information," the commission said.
This included categorizing users, for example, as defecting from North Korea, following a particular religion, or identifying as transgender or gay.
Meta had also wrongfully rejected a user request to access personal information and failed to prevent the leak of data on about 10 South Koreans by hackers, the agency reported.
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