South Korea regulator to fine Apple over iPhone location data
South Korea's telecom regulator said Wednesday that it will impose a 3 million won (US$2,829) fine on Apple Inc. for collecting without permission the location data of iPhone users in the country, in a development that comes amid growing concerns over privacy breach of mobile users worldwide. The Korea Communications Commission said that after a four month investigation, it found that even if iPhone users disabled location service systems on their handsets, Apple collected users' whereabouts from June 22 last year through May 4. Apple first began offering the iPhone in South Korea in November 2009 and the device has been popular among Korean consumers.
The penalty imposed by the Korean regulator on the U.S.-based company for its location data collection is the first of its kind and could set a precedent for other cases. It also comes after Apple's retention of location data raised concerns in mid-April when data-safety researchers in the U.S. said iPhones stored months of location information in unencrypted form. In South Korea, the local unit last month also paid nearly $950 to settle a court ruling in a case brought by a
South Korean attorney who claimed damages that the company's iPhone retained local information about users.The location system is used in applications such as maps and navigation programs and is used to confirm user eligibility for features like watching TV broadcasts.
It wasn't clear whether Apple would agree to pay the fine though Steve Park, a spokesman for Apple in Korea denied that the company tracks the location of iPhone users. KCC said that the ruling is final.
KCC also told Apple and Google Inc.'s Korean units to rectify the "illegal action" of saving the locations of handset users without data encryption and urged both companies to help their customers better understand their respective mobile location tracking systems. The KCC didn't fine Google. Google Korea spokeswoman Lois Kim said the company is currently reviewing KCC's decision. "We have been cooperating closely with the KCC to answer their questions," Kim said.
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