• Google and Meta have been fined $71 million ($49.7 million and $22.1 million) for violating South Korean data protection laws.
• This is the biggest data protection fine ever levied in the country.
• The fines were imposed by the country’s Personal Information Protection Commission.

According to regulators, South Korea has penalized Google and Meta a total of more than $71 million for collecting customers’ personal information without their knowledge in order to deliver customized advertisements.

This is the biggest data protection fine ever levied in the country.

According to the Personal Information Protection Commission, investigations into the two US IT behemoths revealed that they had been “gathering and analyzing” information on their users and keeping tabs on how they were using their websites and applications.

It said that neither Google nor Meta had clearly disclosed this practice to South Korean consumers or gotten their prior agreement.

Instead, it claimed that the data was used to “infer the users’ interests or used for customized online adverts”.

Google and Meta each received fines of 69.2 billion won ($49.7 million) and 30.8 billion won ($22.1 million), respectively.

The commission declared in a statement that the fine was “the greatest for a violation of the Personal Information Protection Act.”

Regulators claimed that the majority of South Korean users — 82% for Google and 98% for Meta — had unintentionally permitted companies to collect information about their internet behavior.

The statement stated that “it may be said that the probability and risk of infringing on users’ rights are significant.”

For abusing its control in the mobile operating system and app marketplaces last year, South Korea fined Google about $180 million, claiming it was undermining market competition.

Massive US technology giants are frequently criticized for edging away competitors to dominate markets, and numerous governments throughout the world are working to curb them in.

The European Union has targeted Apple and Microsoft in addition to punishing Google with historically high antitrust fines.

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