Seoul–South Korea’s privacy regulator has fined TikTok 10.3 billion won, or about $7 million, for unlawfully collecting and using behavioral data from third-party services to personalize advertisements.
The Personal Information Protection Commission imposed the penalty on Singapore-based TikTok Pte. Ltd., which operates the social media platform’s services in South Korea.
The regulator said TikTok collected behavioral data from 9.45 million users in the country through tools distributed to third-party websites and applications.
TikTok then used the information to deliver personalized advertisements without properly informing users, according to the commission.
In a separate action, the regulator ordered corrective measures against two Apple subsidiaries and fined them a combined 252 million won for personal data violations involving the company’s Siri voice assistant.
The commission said Apple collected Siri users’ voice recordings and transcripts without their consent until August 2019.
Apple began requesting permission to collect voice recordings in October 2019 but did not obtain consent for the transcripts, the watchdog said.
The penalties follow a record fine imposed last month on e-commerce company Coupang Corp. over privacy violations, including a large data breach affecting more than 37 million users.
The commission fined Coupang a total of 624.7 billion won, or about $410 million. That included a 423.6 billion won penalty related to the data breach and an additional 201.1 billion won fine for the unauthorized collection of users’ online activity records and other violations.
It was the largest fine the regulator has imposed on a single company.
“The investigation found that this incident happened not by sophisticated hacking, but due to Coupang’s inadequate safety management system,” said Song Kyung-hee, head of the commission.
Coupang expressed regret over the penalty and said it plans to “clarify the facts through legal procedures.” (Source: IANS)
