'Unauthorized Personal Information Leak' Class Action Lawsuit Against Facebook Underway

Facebook logo, the world's largest social media company [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Victims are planning a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, the world's largest social media platform, for unauthorized leakage of members' personal information to external parties.

Law firm Jihyang and the Jinbo Network Center announced on the 19th that they filed a collective dispute mediation request with the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee on the 16th against Facebook for infringement of the right to self-determination of personal information of the affected parties. Law firm Jihyang and the Jinbo Network Center plan to recruit plaintiffs until the 31st of next month and file a damages claim lawsuit. It is known that the number of plaintiffs recruited by the mediation application deadline is 89.

Earlier, the Personal Information Protection Commission confirmed in November last year that Facebook provided members' personal information to other businesses without obtaining consent from the data subjects and imposed a fine of 6.7 billion KRW while filing a criminal complaint. The commission also imposed a fine of 6 million KRW on Facebook for submitting false documents during the investigation process.

According to the commission, Facebook provided not only the information of members who logged into other business services but also the personal information of their Facebook friends to other businesses without consent. The provided information included members' educational background, career, place of origin, and relationship status. The estimated number of victims from May 2012 to June 2018 was over 3.3 million out of approximately 18 million domestic Facebook users.

Law firm Jihyang, representing the lawsuit, stated, "The right to self-determination of personal information is a fundamental right of individuals and must be strictly protected under the Personal Information Protection Act," and pointed out, "It is a very serious problem that IT conglomerates such as Facebook repeatedly commit illegal acts."