Under South Korea’s privacy laws, data related to personal beliefs, political views, and sexual behavior are strictly protected and require explicit consent for processing. South Korea’s privacy watchdog has fined Meta 21.6 billion won (US$15 million) for collecting and sharing sensitive personal data from Facebook users without proper consent. The fine follows a four-year investigation by the Personal Information Protection Commission, which found that Meta gathered information about around 980,000 users, including political views, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs, and shared it with around 4,000 advertisers between July 2018 and March 2022. This fine is the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities. Is the fine enough to force companies to respect data privacy ?
