TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned short-video platform, is facing a substantial fine of $370 million imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) due to breaches of EU privacy laws related to children’s personal data.
TikTok breaches EU privacy laws
The investigation, which focused on the period between July 31, 2020, and December 31, 2020, uncovered multiple violations. TikTok allowed content uploaded by young users to default to a “public” setting, making it accessible to anyone, even those without TikTok accounts.
The platform also failed to verify whether users connected through the “family pairing” feature were genuine parents or guardians of child users. Furthermore, TikTok was found to encourage child users to make privacy-compromising choices during registration and video posting, while not adequately informing them about data handling practices.
In response to these findings, TikTok has pledged to improve its privacy documentation, offering clearer distinctions between public and private accounts. New users aged 16 to 17 will have their accounts automatically set to private during registration, starting later this month. The DPC has granted TikTok a three-month window to address any compliance issues.
Also read: CEO Of World’s Most Downloaded App ‘TikTok’ Doesn’t Allow His Own Children To Use The App
This substantial fine and the necessary changes highlight the growing concern for safeguarding children’s privacy on social media platforms and the regulatory efforts to hold tech companies accountable for their data practices.
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