South Korea fines Google and Meta a combined $71 million over privacy violations

South Korean authorities announced that they have fined Google and Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—roughly $71.8 million after finding that the tech giants violated the country’s privacy law.

South Korea’s privacy watchdog, the Personal Information and Protection Commission (PIPC), said it fined Google 69.2 billion won ($50 million) and Meta 30.8 billion won ($22 million) after officials determined that the companies’ business practices might cause “serious” privacy infringements.

The PIPC found that Google and Meta collected information about users’ online activities when they accessed websites or services outside the companies’ own platforms. Further, the companies did not clearly inform users or obtain their consent regarding this collection of data, writes the Associated Press. According to the commission, the data was used to analyze users’ interests and create individually customized advertisements.