**Meta Faces $15.7 Million Fine in South Korea for Privacy Violations**

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has been penalized with a fine of approximately $15.7 million by South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC). The decision came after the commission discovered that Meta had processed sensitive user information and provided it to advertisers without appropriate legal authorization.

An investigation by the PIPC revealed that Meta collected data from about 980,000 users on topics such as politics, sexuality, and religion, doing so without seeking their consent. This data was subsequently shared with around 4,000 advertisers, a clear infringement of South Korea’s stringent data protection laws.

The sensitive information was gathered through various tracking and profiling methods employed by Meta, including analyzing pages that users liked and ads they clicked on. Among the sensitive categories identified by PIPC were users classified as North Korean defectors, followers of specific religions, and individuals identifying as transgender or gay.

Responding to the commission’s findings, Meta's spokesman Matthew Pollard stated, "We will be reviewing the full written decision once it's shared with us. We remain committed to engaging with the PIPC to protect the privacy of South Korean users."