S.Korea orders Google for details of user data it shared with 3rd parties

Seoul: The South Korean Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that tech giant Google must disclose the list of personal information it has shared with third parties, including United States intelligence, IANS reported.

Four South Korean activists filed a case against Google and its affiliate in the country, Google Korea, in 2014. They had demanded that they wanted to know whether Google had shared personal information with a third party.

According to Yonhap news agency, South Korean law mandates online service providers to provide a response to customers' requests to disclose any record of their personal data being shared with a third party.

An appeals court though partially sided with the plaintiffs, ruled that Google has the right to reject the demand on issues that can be kept private in accordance with the relevant US laws.

However, Supreme Court partially overturned the previous rulings and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court for a retrial.

The apex court in the country observed that even if personal information was provided to foreign intelligence agencies for probable cause, the service provider must notify the users of such acts when that cause terminates.

According to the plaintiff's allegations, Google provided the private information of its users, including those that live outside the US, to an American government intelligence programme known as PRISM. PRISM trawls the Internet for email and chat records of anyone who has contacts in the US

The programme made global headlines after former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden divulged its existence.

Meanwhile, South Korea's antitrust regulator this week slapped a fine of 42.1 billion won (more than $31.8 million) on Google and its regional arms for unfair business practices aimed at solidifying its dominance in the Korean mobile gaming app market.