2023-09-15 14:17:06
Today, the European Union imposed a fine of up to 345 million euros on the social media network TikTok. For violating the European General Data Protection Regulation while dealing with data relating to minors.
TikTok will have to pay administrative fines totaling 345 million euros, and bring its operations into compliance within three months, as announced in a statement by the Irish Data Protection Commission on behalf of the European Union.
In September 2021, the Irish Data Protection Commission opened an investigation into the activities of TikTok, a subsidiary of the Chinese company ByteDance, which includes 150 million accounts in the United States and 134 million in the European Union.
The violations relate to the period extending from July 31, 2020 until December 31 of the same year.
In its decision, the Irish Committee noted that creating accounts for children on this platform is done in a way that the accounts are automatically public.
Other problems relate to the “link family accounts” feature, which allows a teenager’s account to be linked to his or her guardian’s account.
But according to the decision, the company did not specifically verify whether the guardian’s account actually belonged to the guardian of the child in question.
Although the platform is theoretically intended for users over the age of 13, the Irish Data Protection Commission also considered that TikTok did not properly take into account the risks to which people under the age of 13, who were able to create accounts despite this, may be exposed.
A TikTok spokesperson said that the company “respectfully opposes the decision, especially the value of the fine imposed,” noting that the company is “studying the next steps,” without specifying whether it will appeal the decision.
The company said: “The Irish Data Protection Commission’s criticisms focus on features and settings that existed three years ago and that we changed” shortly following that, noting, for example, that all accounts of people under the age of 16 were automatically made private.
The Irish Data Protection Commission has the authority to act on behalf of the European Union; Because the headquarters of TikTok in Europe is located in Ireland.
1694789595
#Signing #fine #million #euros #Tik #Tok
