European Union fines TikTok €345m over child data

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European Union regulator has fined a Chinese-owned social media platform, TikTok 345 million euros for violenting children’s privacy.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said in a statement on Friday that it has handed down the “administrative fine”, which is equivalent to $369 million, over the breaches it uncovered in a two-year inquiry.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) said TikTok failed to protect children’s personal information by making their accounts publicly accessible by default and insufficiently tackled risks that under-13 users could access its platform.

Helen Dixon, the Irish data protection commissioner, said, “Alone the fine of [€345 million] is a headline sanction to impose but reflects the extent to which the DPC identified child users were exposed to risk in particular arising from TikTok’s decision at the time to default child user accounts to public settings on registration.”

The watchdog, which plays a central role in enforcing EU data rules, gave TikTok three months to make the appropriate changes.

However, in response to the fine, TikTok spokesperson told AFP that it “respectfully disagrees” with the verdict and was “evaluating” how to proceed.

“The DPC’s criticisms are focused on features and settings that were in place three years ago, and that we made changes to well before the investigation even began, such as setting all under 16 accounts to private by default.”
The Chinese-owned platform insists that it closely monitors the age of its users and takes action when needed, adding that it has deleted almost 17 million accounts worldwide in the first three month of this year due to suspicions that they belonged to people under 13 years old.”
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Queen Ferry
Queen Ferry
Chinyere Treasure Ikechukwu also known as Queen Ferry, is a Nigerian business Executive, social media savvy Journalist and Content Editor with over seven years experience. She serves as the Vice-Chairman of Naijatraffic Limited. If Treasure is not researching/blogging, she will be making delicious delicacy.

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