Facebook fined $6.1M in South Korea for sharing user data without consent

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Facebook is once again facing regulatory action for breaching data protection and privacy laws. This time, the social media company has been fined $6.1 million in South Korea for sharing the data of 3.3 million users without their consent.

South Korean authorities have been investigating Facebook since 2018 following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Korea Communication Commission initiated the investigation before handing it over to the Personal Information Protection Commission. PIPC has now concluded its investigation, finding Facebook guilty of personal data protection laws violation.

When users logged in to third-party apps using their Facebook accounts, the company shared their data and that of their friends. These friends were unaware that Facebook was sharing their information with these third parties, the PIPC found.

The commission stated, “A user agreed to share their information with a particular service when they logged in with their Facebook accounts. However, the user’s friends didn’t, and they were unaware that their data were also being shared.”

Some of the information Facebook shared include users’ names, academic history, hometown, relationship status and job history. In addition, Facebook stored user password data without encrypting it. It also didn’t notify users when it accessed their data.

During the course of the investigation, Facebook allegedly frustrated the regulator by turning false and incomplete documents.

The PIPC fined Facebook 6.7 billion won ($6.06 million) for the violations, and an extra 66 million won ($59,729) for failure to cooperate during the investigations. As ZDNet reports, the PPIC intends on filing a criminal complaint against Facebook for breaking personal information laws.

This is not an isolated incident for Facebook, with the social media company becoming a symbol of big tech’s reckless handling of user data. However, the Bitcoin community has taken it upon itself to deliver users, with the number of social media applications on the Bitcoin SV blockchain rising by the day.

Twetch remains the most popular, with the platform surpassing the all-important 1 million transactions milestone a month ago. As co-founder Josh Petty told CoinGeek, users have flocked the platform in recent months as they seek online liberation from the tech giants.

With Bitcoin SV, users have been able to own their data. They can then control access to this data, including being able to monetize it. With the BSV blockchain being immutable, the users are also assured they will own their data forever.

The social media landscape was one of topics that received great focus during CoinGeek Live. As Crash Inc.’s Isaac Morehouse told the audience, BSV platforms such as Twetch, Streamanity and Powping have finally given the power back to the content creators.

See also: CoinGeek Live panel, Re-Invent the Internet: New Models for Digital Media & User Content