TikTok could face a 拢27 million fine after an investigation by the Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office.
The ICO found that the company may have breached UK data protection law by failing to protect children鈥檚 privacy when using its social media platform.
The ICO has issued TikTok Inc and TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited with a 鈥榥otice of intent鈥� – a legal document that precedes a potential fine.聽
The notice sets out the ICO鈥檚 provisional view that TikTok breached UK data protection law between May 2018 and July 2020.
The ICO investigation found the fast-growing company may have processed the data of children under the age of 13 without appropriate parental consent; failed to provide proper information to its users in a concise, transparent and easily understood way; and processed special category data, without legal grounds to do so.
The findings are provisional and the ICO says it will 鈥榗arefully consider any representations from TikTok before taking a final decision鈥�.
鈥淲e all want children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections,鈥� said Information Commissioner John Edwards.聽
鈥淐ompanies providing digital services have a legal duty to put those protections in place, but our provisional view is that TikTok fell short of meeting that requirement.
鈥淚鈥檝e been clear that our work to better protect children online involves working with organisations but will also involve enforcement action where necessary.聽
鈥淚n addition to this, we are currently looking into how over 50 different online services are conforming with the Children鈥檚 code and have six ongoing investigations looking into companies providing digital聽 services who haven鈥檛, in our initial view, taken their responsibilities around child safety seriously enough.鈥�
A spokesperson for TikTok told 老九品茶Cloud: “This Notice of Intent, covering the period May 2018 – July 2020, is provisional and as the ICO itself has stated, no final conclusions can be drawn at this time.
“While we respect the ICO’s role in safeguarding privacy in the UK, we disagree with the preliminary views expressed and intend to formally respond to the ICO in due course.”聽