Asia Tech Wire (Nov 5) -- South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) decided at a meeting on Monday to impose an administrative fine of 21.6 billion won ($15.65 million) on U.S. Internet company Meta Platforms Inc. for violating the country's Personal Information Protection Act.

The commission disclosed Tuesday that according to its findings, Meta collected sensitive information such as religious views, political views, and whether or not they were married to someone of the same sex from the personal profiles of about 980,000 South Korean users of its social platform Facebook.

The Personal Information Protection Act stipulates that information related to a person's thoughts and beliefs, political views, sexual life, etc. is categorized as sensitive information subject to strict protection, and its handling is prohibited as a matter of principle.

Korean authorities found that Meta provided unauthorized collection of sensitive personal information to advertisers, and that approximately 4,000 advertisers utilized the sensitive information.

The PIPC argued that Meta collected and utilized users' sensitive information without their consent and failed to take measures to protect personal information.

In addition, Meta refused users' requests to access their personal information on the grounds that they were not subject to the Personal Information Protection Act.

The PIPC also pointed out that Meta failed to take security measures such as deleting or closing websites that were deactivated or inactive, resulting in the leakage of personal information of 10 Korean users.