The chief of the state watchdog on personal information protection has apologized for the recent leak of personal information of 181 petitioners involved in a Facebook personal data breach case.

The Personal Information Protection Commission mistakenly sent the personal information of all 181 petitioners to 19 of them earlier this month. The commission has been arbitrating between the petitioners and Facebook over the social networking service's unauthorized leak of their personal data.

"For the occurrence of an information leak committed by the agency, I deeply apologize to the victims and the public," Yoon Jong-in, chairperson of the commission, said in a message uploaded in the agency's website a day earlier.

"Within the scope allowed by law, the agency will thoroughly investigate the case through a fair and objective process and take necessary measures upon the results," he said.

Last month, the commission recommended Facebook to pay 300,000 won ($254.10) in compensation to each of the 181 petitioners. The agency had earlier concluded that Facebook passed personal data of at least 3.3 million Korean users to third parties without the users' consent between May 2012 and June 2018. (Yonhap)