South Korea fines Apple over data

Apple’s South Korean unit has been fined 3m Won ($2,855) by the country’s communications regulator after the iPhone and iPad maker collected location data from users without proper authorisation.

The fine, though small, marks the first time Apple has been punished by a regulator over the controversial location data collection which has sparked criticism in the US and elsewhere.

The revelation back in April that Apple’s iPhones collected location data and stored it for up to a year – even when location software was supposedly turned off – has prompted renewed scrutiny of the nexus between location and privacy. Apple has since issued a patch to fix the problem.

Some 27,800 South Korean iPhone and iPad users are planning to launch a class action suit against Apple over the matter, while two separate US groups have sued Apple, alleging that certain software applications were passing personal information to third-party advertisers without consent.The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) ordered corrective measures on the South Korean operations of Apple and Google, saying it has found loopholes in systems supposed to protect location information. It ordered the technology giants to encrypt location data stored in smartphones.

Apple Korea could have had its business suspended or been fined three percent of its location information revenue for failing to encrypt location data, or been fined up to 10 million Won for collecting data without permission of its users, the KCC said.

Google, a fierce competitor of Apple has also faced a whole host of criticism over the recent reports that its Android-based phones track the location of users. However, Google said that location-sharing on its Android mobile platform was strictly opt-in. “We are currently reviewing the KCC’s decision,” Google Korea said in a statement. “We have been cooperating closely with the KCC to answer their questions, and look forward to continuing to working with them again in the future.”

Back in June, Apple paid a Korean lawyer one million won ($942) in a court ruling regarding its location data collection, the first payout from the US tech giant over the assortment of complaints.