Media reports indicate that Meta Platforms and Google are currently taking legal action against an order issued by the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) in South Korea, which has fined them 100 billion KRW for the illegal collection of personal data without user consent for online advertising purposes. PIPC is a regulatory body responsible for monitoring data protection and privacy matters in the country.
Tech giants have been facing legal issues for years due to unauthorized data collection, processing, and tracking of users. These companies face multiple lawsuits in different countries for their usage of user data without proper consent.
Reports suggest that fine issued by PIPC against Meta Platforms and Google is the largest ever in a case concerning the alleged breach of personal information protection laws. PIPC has also mandated that these tech giants must obtain user consent before collecting or utilizing user behavior data on third-party websites or applications, and communicate this information to their users in a clear and straightforward manner.
Despite expressing regret over the regulatory ruling, the tech giants have contended that the obligation to obtain legitimate consent for collecting user data lies with the operators of websites and applications rather than platform operators like themselves. This argument is often employed by internet and social media giants in response to issues concerning the collection and usage of user data.
PIPC reportedly launched an investigation into a policy update by Meta Platforms that would allow the company to deny access to its platform for users who refused to accept its revised privacy policy. PIPC was scrutinizing whether this policy update was in violation of South Korean laws. Subsequently, Meta Platforms chose to retract the contentious policy update. It can be assumed that the company realized the move could potentially result in legal repercussions in South Korea.
In December 2022, Google was fined 50 million Euros, approximately 57 million dollars, by CNIL, the French data protection authority. The fine was imposed on the grounds that the company had breached the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union, particularly with regards to its handling of ad personalization.
Recently, Facebook and its law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, were instructed to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions by a United States court for falsely denying that the social media giant had disclosed users’ private data to third-party entities without obtaining their consent.
