S.Korean watchdog looking into Meta’s privacy policy update

The Personal Information Protection Commission is looking into whether the upcoming privacy policy update by Meta, the operator of Facebook, runs afoul of domestic law and will take action if any irregularities are found, officials said on Friday.

Meta has since late May sent out notifications to South Korean users of Facebook and another Meta-run platform, Instagram, demanding consent on new terms and conditions of its updated privacy policy.

Meta later postponed the date of the update to August 9.

The new policy permits the overseas transfer of personal information, collection of location information and other privacy information collection, and users who already gave their consent will be able to access their accounts after the update, according to the notifications, reports Yonhap news agency.

“Currently a review is under way of Meta’s privacy policy with a special focus on whether the personal user information it is collecting is indispensable for the provision of its services,” officials at the commission said.

“If any violations of the Personal Information Protection Act are found in the investigation, the commission plans to take active measures to protect users from privacy infringement,” officials said.

Under the domestic privacy protection law, service providers are prohibited from withholding services to users on the grounds that they refuse to give more than the “minimum necessary” level of personal information. SocialNews.XYZ