Why South Korea has fined Facebook on privacy
The South Korean privacy authority fined Facebook and Netflix € 4.8 million, accusing them of collecting and transferring personal data without consent. Google was only cautioned
The Commission on the Protection of Personal Information, the South Korean authority that deals with the protection of personal data, has imposed a fine of 6.7 billion won (4.8 million euros) on Facebook and Netflix for violations of privacy. Google, on the other hand, only received a warning. However, the Commission has required all three American technology companies to resolve the problems of their respective platforms.
THE FACEBOOK FINE
Of the three, Facebook received the biggest fine: 6.46 billion won. The South Korean authority found that, from April 2018 to September 2019, the company created and collected facial recognition models of 200,000 local users without their consent.
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South Korean news agency Yonhap writes that this is the second largest fine imposed on Facebook by the authority.
In fact, last November, the Commission fined Facebook for 6.7 billion won and asked for an investigation into the company for having provided other operators with personal information about its users without their consent.
Facebook has also been accused of illegally collecting the phone numbers of subscribers to its platform and of failing to notify changes to personal information management policies.
THE FIN AT NETFLIX
The fine to Netflix, on the other hand, amounts to more than 220 million won and concerns the unwitting collection of personal information of 5 million people even before the process for their registration to the streaming platform was completed.
The company was also held responsible for failing to disclose the transfer of South Korean users' personal data outside the country.
THE WARNING TO GOOGLE
Unlike Facebook and Netflix, Google has not been fined, but the Commission has asked the company to improve its personal data management measures, defined as vague.
SOUTH KOREA'S CLOSE ON APPLE AND GOOGLE
On Wednesday, a South Korean parliamentary committee voted in favor of a request to change a law that will ban Google and Apple from collecting fees (up to 30 percent) from software developers who publish their apps in the two companies' stores.
The law aims to reduce Apple and Google's dominant position in the South Korean market for in-app payment systems.
Apple defended itself by speaking, among other things, of privacy protection: it claims that the absence of commissions and therefore of controls through its payment systems will expose South Korean users to the "risk of fraud, undermining their privacy protections. , damaging user confidence in App Store purchases and leading to fewer opportunities for South Korean developers ”.
Lee Hwange, a professor of competition law at Korea University School of Law, told Reuters that "Google and Apple are not the only ones who can create a secure payment system."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/corea-del-sud-google-netflix-facebook-multa-privacy/ on Thu, 26 Aug 2021 09:16:56 +0000.