Facebook convicted of illegally collecting facial recognition data

The South Korean authorities fined Facebook 6.46 billion won (about 4.3 million euros) for its use of facial recognition without users knowing. The country’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) accuses the social network of offenses committed between April 2018 and September 2019, reports The Register.

During this period, Facebook created and maintained facial recognition features of 200,000 South Korean internet users, the commission said. The company did not sufficiently ensure the consent of the persons concerned. In addition to paying the fine, the social network has an obligation to destroy the data in question or to obtain authorization to keep them.

Facebook already condemned last year

The PIPC also found Facebook guilty of several other breaches of the rules regarding the collection of personal data. For example, she ruled that the Californian giant had illegally collected social security numbers and had not informed of its changes in information management methods. For this, the social network will have to pay a fine of 26 million won (18,800 euros).

The commission announced last year the launch of an inspection of the practices of Facebook, Netflix and Google in terms of confidential data and security. All three companies were fined. The one addressed to the social network is the second most important ever issued by the PIPC. The highest was in November 2020 and already concerned Facebook.

The platform was then found guilty of having transferred data concerning its users to third-party companies. The commission said its investigations were not complete. In particular, it intends to focus more on information provided by foreign companies and to conduct a new legal audit.