The popular social media platform TikTok will face fines of £27m in the UK due to breaches of the country’s data protection laws, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced. The Chinese social networking giant allegedly received a notice of intent that explains the laws broken. The violations noted in the statement occurred between 2018 and 2020. They include processing the data of children under the age of 13 without adequate parental consent, failing to provide information to users, and processed special category data. The latter refers to data such as ethnic and racial origin, genetic, health data, and more. The ICO has determined that TikTok’s violations equate to the multi-million dollar fine.
Information Commissioner John Edwards argued that TikTok did not uphold its legal duty to protect minors’ privacy on the app. TikTok allows users as old as 13 years, yet failed to offer proper security standards and methods that protected the data of these individuals. Edwards stated that the ICO is currently investigating how 50 different online services are adhering to the law that mandates the data regulations on children. Edwards also confirmed that six ongoing investigations remained regarding the Children’s code that mandates the data regulation. These six companies may be guilty of the same offense as TikTok in failing to uphold responsibilities concerning child safety.
Read More: TikTok Facing £27m UK Regulatory Fine
