S.Korea fines Google, Meta billions of won over privacy accusations

South Korea levied fines running into millions of dollars on Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms following accusations of privacy law violations, authorities said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Personal Information Protection Commission said it fined Google 69.2 billion won ($50 million) and Meta 30.8 billion won ($22 million).

Google and Meta did not have an immediate comment.

The privacy panel said the firms did not clearly inform service users and obtain prior consent when collecting and analysing behavioural information to infer their interests or use them for customised advertisements.