By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --HBO's "Game of Thrones" has the dubious honor of being popular with both pirates and viewers.
After its fifth season began Sunday, users of a Twitter-owned live-streaming app shared the fantasy drama.
HBO said Tuesday it sent "take down" notices to Periscope, the app that allows video streaming from users' phones to their Twitter followers.
Twitter, which recently acquired Periscope, said the app complies with U.S. copyright law and will respond to valid take-down requests.
On Monday, HBO said four unaired "Game of Thrones" episodes that were leaked online had come from within a group authorized to receive preview DVDs.
The unrelated incidents don't appear to have hurt the show's ratings. HBO hasn't released figures, but reports say nearly 8 million viewers tuned in to the premiere, the best start yet for the series based on the works of George R.R. Martin.
HBO indirectly chided Periscope, saying in a statement that app developers should have tools to "proactively prevent mass copyright infringement" and not rely solely on being notified after such incidents occur.
Neither HBO nor Twitter had further comment on the issue.
But in a Periscope copyright policy posted online, the company said it expects users to respect intellectual property rights and asks those alleging copyright infringement to contact it with details and proof.
The policy also says that Periscope reserves the right to remove such content without prior notice and to terminate the account of a "repeat infringer."
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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