EU fines TikTok 345 million euros over child data

The European Union fined TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media company, 345 million euros for data breaches involving children.

EU fines TikTok over child data: Ireland’s Data Protection Commission announced in a statement that it had imposed a “administrative fine” of $369 million for the violations it found during a two-year investigation.

The agency gave TikTok three months to bring its processing into compliance with its standards.

Ireland’s DPC is crucial to enforcing the stringent General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) of the EU.

In September 2021, the watchdog started investigating TikTok’s adherence to GDPR in relation to platform settings and the handling of personal data for users under the age of 18.

It also examined TikTok’s age verification policies for users under the age of 13 and found no violations, but it also concluded that the company had not adequately considered the hazards associated with younger users signing up for the site.

“In its decision on Friday, the DPC emphasized that when minors signed up for TikTok, the platform automatically set their accounts to public, allowing anyone to view and comment on their videos.”

“GDPR Concerns Prompt DPC Inquiry into TikTok’s ‘Family Pairing’ Feature and Parent Verification”

The DPC also questioned TikTok’s “family pairing” feature, which connects parents’ accounts with those of their teenage children. However, the DPC found that the company did not verify the parent or guardian status.

Because TikTok, Google, Meta, and X, previously Twitter, have their European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland is at the hub of the GDPR rule.

TikTok, a spinoff of Chinese internet giant ByteDance, is highly popular among young people, boasting 150 million users in the US and 134 million in the EU.

In reaction to the penalties imposed on Friday, TikTok stated that it “respectfully disagrees” with the ruling and was “evaluating” its next course of action.

“The DPC’s objections are centred on features and settings that were in existence three years ago, and that we changed well before the investigation ever began,” a TikTok representative told AFP. “For example, we switched all under-16 accounts to private by default.