(Photo: Yonhap News)
South Korea's information watchdog has slapped Facebook with a 6.7 billion won fine for privacy violations.
The Personal Information Protection Commission announced Wednesday that Facebook gave companies access to the personal data of 3.3 million local users without their consent from May 2012 to June 2018.
It marked the commission's first punishment against the U.S. tech giant since it was launched in August.
The commission said when users logged into other company's services using their Facebook accounts, the personal information of their Facebook friends was also shared, including addresses, dates of birth, work experience and relationship statuses.
Facebook was also hit with a separate penalty of 66 million won for submitting false documents.
The commission said it will refer Facebook Ireland to the prosecution for a criminal investigation, as it was in charge of operations in South Korea during the cited violation period,
Facebook expressed regret over the commission's decision and said it had yet to closely review the PIPC's measures.
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