South Korea’s Personal Protection Commission (PIPC) has given Meta a $15 million fine after accusing the social media giant of breaking privacy laws.

The commission conducted a four-year investigation, finding proof that Meta “illegally” collected and shared sensitive consumer information related to around one million Facebook users between July 2018 and March 2022. The social media platform also shared this information with around 4,000 advertisers, with users receiving targeted ads based on such data, it said.

Information shared with advertisers included political views, religious beliefs and sexual orientation. South Korea’s privacy laws protects personal information and bans companies from using this type of data without specific permission from users involved.

PIPC director Lee Eun Jung said: “While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualised services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy.”

The investigation also revealed a security oversight by Meta. The Commission said that the company failed to take security measures such as removing inactive user pages, resulting in hackers violating at least 10 inactive accounts to gain access to active ones.

The move represents the latest penalty handed to Meta by the South Korean PIPC.

In 2022, Meta and Google were fined around $72 million with the PIPC accusing the platforms of tracking consumer data and behaviour without consent.

Another fine was imposed in 2020 when it accused Meta of sharing personal data with third parties without consent, resulting in a $4.8 million fine.

Meta was also recently hit with a $100 million fine from European regulators after they accused Facebook of exposing user passwords in an unencrypted format.

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