South Korea Fines TikTok US$7m Over Unauthorized Data Tracking

SEOUL, July 23 — South Korea’s data protection regulator has fined TikTok 10.3 billion won (US$7 million) for illegally collecting and utilizing user behavioral data from third-party websites and applications to serve targeted advertisements.

The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) announced that the administrative fine was levied against Singapore-based TikTok Pte. Ltd., which manages the social media platform’s operations in South Korea, following confirmed violations of national data privacy legislation.

According to the watchdog’s findings, TikTok systematically gathered online behavioral records from approximately 9.45 million users across South Korea using data-collection tools distributed to external third-party websites and mobile applications. The harvested data was subsequently leveraged to deliver personalized commercial advertisements without providing adequate notice or securing explicit consent from affected individuals.

In a concurrent enforcement action, the privacy commission issued corrective orders and imposed a combined fine of 252 million won on two subsidiaries of Apple Inc. for separate personal data privacy breaches linked to its virtual assistant service.

The regulatory investigation established that Apple collected users’ voice recordings and corresponding text transcripts via its Siri voice assistant without obtaining statutory permission prior to August 2019.

While the tech giant subsequently updated its protocols in October 2019 to request user consent for voice recording collection, the commission noted that Apple failed to extend the mandatory consent requirement to text transcripts of those recordings.

-NMT