Personalized Ads Using Personal Data Without User Consent... Google and Meta Fined 100 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Google and Meta have been fined 100 billion KRW for collecting personal information without user consent and using it for online personalized advertising. This sanction is the first penalty related to the collection and use of behavioral information by online personalized advertising platforms and represents the largest fine imposed for violations of related laws.

The Personal Information Protection Commission held its 15th plenary session on the 14th and decided to impose fines of 69.2 billion KRW on Google and 30.8 billion KRW on Meta. At the same time, it issued corrective orders to both companies to notify users clearly and obtain their consent so that users can easily and clearly recognize and freely exercise their decision rights when collecting and using users' third-party behavioral information.

The Commission has been inspecting the collection and use of behavioral information by major domestic and international online personalized advertising platforms since February last year. The investigation confirmed that Google and Meta collected and analyzed third-party behavioral information of users of their services to infer users' interests or use it for personalized advertising without clearly informing users of this fact or obtaining prior consent.

Google, from at least 2016 to the present, did not clearly inform users about the collection and use of third-party behavioral information at the time of service registration, and used a method of hiding the 'More Options' screen while setting the default value to 'Agree.' Meta, from July 14, 2018, to the present, collected third-party behavioral information of users who signed up for its services and used it for personalized advertising without clearly informing and obtaining consent from those users.

Facebook, operated by Meta, displayed the full 694-line data policy including behavioral information collection in a scrollable screen showing only five lines at account creation, but did not separately notify or obtain consent for the legally required notices. The Commission's investigation found that the majority of Korean users (over 82% for Google, over 98% for Meta) have settings that allow platforms to collect third-party behavioral information, indicating a high possibility and risk of infringement on data subjects' rights.

To check the third-party behavioral information collected by Google, users can go to 'Google Account' at the top right of the Google webpage → Manage Google Account → Data & Privacy → Web & App Activity. In the 'Ad Personalization' section, users can see interest categories generated by Google analyzing their behavioral information. To check the behavioral information collected by Meta, users can access 'Settings & Privacy → Settings → Your Facebook Information → Off-Facebook Activity → Recent Activity' and enter their password.

Recently, Meta attempted to update its service to restrict access if users did not consent to providing personal information but withdrew the plan following strong user backlash.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.