TikTok Faces Fine For Breaching Children's Data Privacy

09 Aug 2023

The popular short-form video platform TikTok looks set to face a privacy fine before September 2023...

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) earlier this month resolved disagreements among agencies in an investigation into the popular video-sharing platform used by 125 million people in the European Union.

The EDPB had “adopted a dispute resolution decision” after Tiktok submitted legal objections to an earlier ruling in Ireland, home of the company’s European headquarters. A fine is expected to be issued within the next four weeks.

This fine marks the end of an investigation initially opened in 2021 that looked into TikTok’s level of compliance with the EU’s general data protection regulation and how it handles the data of children aged 13 to 17.

TikTok announced a number of new features for European users aimed at improving compliance with new European Union regulations on content, which come into force on 25 August.

Under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), TikTok, Google, Facebook and other large online platforms will be required to police illegal content on their platforms, prohibit certain advertising practices, and share data with authorities.

Under the DSA advertising to minors based on profiling using personal data will be banned across the BLOC (where they can reasonably identify the age of the recipient).

This is a huge win for data privacy and we will no-doubt begin to see more fines across the European Union.