Popular Articles
Today Week Month Year


Europe hits TikTok with $368 million fine for mishandling children’s personal info
By Olivia Cook // Sep 21, 2023

European regulators slapped video-sharing giant TikTok with a $368 million fine on Sept. 15 for failing to protect children's privacy by mishandling their personal information on the app.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), Europe's lead privacy regulator for Big Tech companies, said in a statement that the Chinese-owned short-video platform breached a number of European Union data privacy laws.

The investigation found that the sign-up process for teen users aged 13-17 resulted in settings that made their account profiles "public" by default – allowing anyone to view, comment on their videos and contact the minor user.

With over 134 million monthly users in the European Union (EU), the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) noted that children's data may have been used to track and profile them because of those default settings – increasing the risk of potential harmful and dangerous content being displayed on their accounts.

In addition, a "family pairing" feature designed for parents to manage settings wasn't strict enough. (Related: TikTok becoming a platform for child sexual exploitation.)

TikTok does not verify whether a user is actually a child's parent or guardian. The platform also allowed adults to turn on direct messaging for users aged 16 and 17 without the consent of their parents or guardians and nudged teen users into more "privacy intrusive" options when signing up and posting videos.

The European Consumer Organization Deputy Director-General Ursula Pachl said she hopes the fine serves as a "wake-up call" for social media platforms and that this decision triggers change at the company to truly address issues, which not only concern minors but adults as well.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

Pachl stated that the U.K. imposed a $15.9 million fine on the platform for similarly failing to protect the privacy of children by reportedly allowing over 1.4 million children under 13 in 2020 alone to access the TikTok platform even though they're not allowed to use the app.

The DPC gave TikTok three months to bring all its processing where infringements were found into compliance. It has a second probe open into the transferring by TikTok of personal data to China and whether it complies with EU data law when moving personal data to countries outside the bloc. In March, the DPC said it was preparing a preliminary draft decision into that investigation.

Under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was introduced in 2018, the lead regulator for any given company can impose fines of up to four percent of the company's global revenue.

The DPC has hit other tech giants with big fines, including a combined 2.5 billion euros ($2.66 billion) levied on Meta Platforms.

TikTok claims it did nothing wrong

Meanwhile, TikTok said in a statement that it disagrees with the decision, "particularly the level of the fine imposed."

Tiktok's head of privacy in Europe Elaine Fox published a blog post detailing how the platform has updated its policies even before the EU's investigation began in September 2021.

"Most of the decision's criticisms are no longer relevant as a result of measures we introduced at the start of 2021 – several months before the investigation began," Fox wrote in a blog post.

TikTok made all accounts for users aged 13 to 15 private by default in January 2021, Fox said. The platform plans to further update its privacy materials to make the differences between public and private accounts clearer.

It will also roll out later this month a "redesigned registration flow" for new users aged 16 to 17 that will be "pre-selected" for a private account when they register for the app, Fox said.

On the "family pairing" feature, TikTok added tougher parental controls in November 2020 and changed the default setting for all registered users under the age of 16 to "private" in January 2021.

A TikTok spokesperson told BBC that "our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community."

"While we disagree with ICO's decision, which relates to May 2018-July 2020, we will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps," the spokesperson added.

Visit BigTech.news for more concerns about social media and other online platforms.

Watch this video that talk about TikTok getting hit with massive $367 million fine for mishandling children's data.

This video is from the Daily Videos channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

TikTok to censor content that challenges global warming dogma.

15 AGs demand Apple, Google app stores change TikTok rating to "mature."

Parents not comfortable allowing their children to use Chinese app TikTok, poll reveals.

Sources include:

JournalRecord.com

DataProtection.ie

NewsBusters.org

Reuters.com 1

Reuters.com 2

TechCrunch.com

Fox2Now.com

Brighteon.com



Take Action:
Support NewsTarget by linking to this article from your website.
Permalink to this article:
Copy
Embed article link:
Copy
Reprinting this article:
Non-commercial use is permitted with credit to NewsTarget.com (including a clickable link).
Please contact us for more information.
Free Email Alerts
Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more.

NewsTarget.com © 2022 All Rights Reserved. All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. NewsTarget.com is not responsible for content written by contributing authors. The information on this site is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind. NewsTarget.com assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. Your use of this website indicates your agreement to these terms and those published on this site. All trademarks, registered trademarks and servicemarks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.

This site uses cookies
News Target uses cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using this site, you agree to our privacy policy.
Learn More
Close
Get 100% real, uncensored news delivered straight to your inbox
You can unsubscribe at any time. Your email privacy is completely protected.