{"id":15783,"date":"2026-07-24T14:48:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15783"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:48:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:48:34","slug":"south-korea-fines-tiktok-apple-units-over-user-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15783","title":{"rendered":"South Korea fines TikTok, Apple units over user data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/1731784844728\/2026\/upi_com\/dea6683938a72c53aaf8d53e7806ebda\/v1.5\/South-Korea-fines-TikTok-Apple-units-over-user-data.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Song Kyung-hee, head of the Personal Information Protection Commission, speaks during a plenary session of the commission at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, 22 April 2026. Photo by YONHAP \/ EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 23 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> South Korea&#8217;s privacy regulator has fined TikTok and Apple affiliates a combined 10.56 billion won, or about $7.2 million, for collecting, using and transferring personal information without sufficient legal grounds or notice to users.<\/p>\n<p>The Personal Information Protection Commission said Thursday it imposed a 10.31 billion won, or about $7 million, fine on TikTok, along with corrective and public disclosure orders.\n<\/p>\n<p>An Apple affiliate was fined 252 million won, or about $171,000, while two Apple-related companies were ordered to correct violations involving the collection and overseas transfer of Siri data.<\/p>\n<p>The commission approved the measures during a plenary meeting Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><b>TikTok tracked activity outside its platform<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Investigators found that TikTok collected information about users&#8217; activity on third-party websites and applications and linked the data to their TikTok accounts for personalized advertising.<\/p>\n<p>The company obtained consent for the advertising-related tracking together with other information required to provide its service, effectively preventing users from exercising a meaningful choice, the commission said.\n<\/p>\n<p>About 71,000 South Korean businesses had installed TikTok data collection tools on their websites or apps, according to the regulator.<\/p>\n<p>The tools collected behavioral information from about 9.45 million active users in South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok also collected device identifiers and connected them with members&#8217; accounts to deliver targeted advertisements.<\/p>\n<p>The commission said TikTok transferred personal information to overseas affiliates without adequately notifying users about the specific data involved and the conditions of the transfers.<\/p>\n<p>Regulators concluded that users who wanted to use TikTok were effectively required to accept the collection of their activity on unrelated websites and apps for personalized advertising.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok was ordered to revise its consent procedures, improve its disclosures and publicly announce the regulator&#8217;s decision.<\/p>\n<p>The European Union&#8217;s Irish Data Protection Commission separately fined TikTok $530 million euros in 2025 over transfers of European user data to China. That case involved different legal provisions and conduct from the South Korean investigation.<\/p>\n<p><b>Apple affiliate fined over Siri recordings<\/b><\/p>\n<p>South Korean regulators also sanctioned Apple affiliates over the collection and use of recordings and transcripts generated through the Siri voice assistant in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The commission said the companies collected Siri users&#8217; voice recordings and transcripts without valid consent and used the material to improve the service.\n<\/p>\n<p>The conduct occurred before South Korea transferred online privacy provisions from its former telecommunications law to the Personal Information Protection Act. The earlier law therefore applied to the case.<\/p>\n<p>Regulators also found that Apple-related companies transferred the information to Apple&#8217;s U.S. headquarters and other overseas entities without sufficiently disclosing the categories of information, purposes of use and retention periods in their privacy policies.<\/p>\n<p>Apple Distribution International was fined 252 million won for violating the former telecommunications law.<\/p>\n<p>Apple Services Pte. Ltd. received a corrective order requiring it to review and address its compliance with rules governing overseas data transfers.<\/p>\n<p>The commission said it considered Apple&#8217;s voluntary corrective measures when determining the level of sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>During the investigation, Apple introduced an option allowing users to choose whether their Siri transcripts could be used and revised its privacy policy.<\/p>\n<p>Apple announced in August 2019 that users would be able to opt in to the use of audio samples for Siri quality reviews and said only Apple employees would be permitted to listen to samples from consenting users.<\/p>\n<p>The commission said the decision reaffirmed that global companies must clearly explain how they process the information of South Korean users even when the data passes through several overseas affiliates.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Overseas service providers processing the personal information of domestic users must comply with lawful consent procedures and overseas transfer requirements under South Korean privacy law,&#8221; a commission official said.<\/p>\n<p>The regulator said it would continue inspecting global platforms and enforcing South Korean privacy protections.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260723010008435\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260723010008435<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Song Kyung-hee, head of the Personal Information Protection Commission, speaks during a plenary session of the commission at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, 22 April 2026. Photo by YONHAP \/ EPA July 23 (Asia Today) &#8212; South Korea&#8217;s privacy regulator has fined TikTok and Apple affiliates a combined 10.56 billion won, or about&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/1731784844728\/2026\/1\/dea6683938a72c53aaf8d53e7806ebda\/v1.5\/South-Korea-fines-TikTok-Apple-units-over-user-data.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}