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An American IT company that operates Facebook and Instagram is announcing that if you do not agree to the provision of personal information to subscribers, you cannot use the service.

There are criticisms that the provision of information is not an option, but it is a compulsory request, which may violate the law. 



Reporter Park Chan-geun reported.



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Facebook and Instagram have established themselves as essential apps for the people.



[Songmi Lee: Instagram is very popular these days, and we communicate a lot (via this).

So I don't think I can buy it without using it.]



The meta, who runs both services, said in May that in order to continue using the service, they must agree to the provision of specific personal information such as the user's location information and card payment information. announced.



It includes not only information for customized personal advertising, but also requests for posts, comments, contact information, and a list of friends, and provides the collected information to government agencies or investigative agencies.



[Ji Soo-hwan: There is no suitable substitute, so even considering all of those things, I think I’m just using it (I agree).]



The deadline for consent, which was until the 25th of this month, was postponed to the 8th of the next month due to the opposition of users, but due to the behavior of the meta It is being pointed out that there is a possibility of violating the current law.



The Personal Information Protection Act stipulates that the provision of services must not be refused on the grounds that information other than the minimum personal information is not provided.



[Howoong Choi/Member of the Digital Information Committee, Minbyun: If location information or something like this is not essential, can the platform or online platform not provide services?

Because it is an excessive collection of personal information, it is part of the fact that this regulation itself is also being violated.] It



is an act that may harm consumers' interests by using its market power, and it is also pointed out that it may violate the Fair Trade Act.



The Personal Information Protection Commission has also launched an investigation.



Meta said that the information that is being consented to this time has already been collected with consent, and it is difficult to answer whether the related guidelines will be changed.



(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan, video editing: Hwang Ji-young, CG: Seo Seung-hyun)