Millionaire fined TikTok for violating the privacy of minors

British privacy regulator fined TikTok for £12.7 million (approx. 14 million euros) for “misuse” of personal information of minors. The agency said the social network violated the country’s data protection law.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has assured that TikTok has allowed up to 1.4 million children in the UK, children under 13 will use the app in 2020. The site’s community standards require users to be at least this age. They mention that otherwise these accounts will be deleted.

TikTok did not identify or properly remove individuals under the age of 13, the watchdog notes. He explained that although he knew that the children were on the platform, the company also did not obtain the consent of their parents to process their data, as required by the legislation of this country.

“TikTok should have done better,” Information Commissioner John Edwards said in a press release. He said the fine “reflects the severe impact its failures may have had” and believes that not enough has been done to control access and use of the app.

Penalty for underage users is another setback for TikTok

Edwards said in a statement that TikTok may have used minors’ data to track and profile them. This, in his opinion, could lead to them being exposed to harmful or inappropriate content.

Tiktok replied. The company said it did not agree with the decision, but noted the reduction in the fine. Last year, the control office studied the establishment of punishment for the platform 27 million pounds (about 30.9 million euros).

“We are investing heavily to keep children under 13 away from the platform,” said a TikTok spokesperson quoted by the publication. Reuters. He stressed that they have a team 40 thousand people under the supervision of the social network 24 hours a day to keep it safe for the user community.

Australia joins the ban

TikTok was fined for using data from minors after the UK government banned its officials from using the app. This measure was adopted in March last year, and even ministers had to comply with it.

Today, the Australian government requested that the app be removed from all devices owned by the federal government. Like the rest of the countries that banned the app, Australia raises security concerns. The decision was made on the advice of the security services of this country.

The governments of the European Union and the United States were the first to restrict the access of their employees to the social network. Then they were joined by countries such as Canada, Belgium, Denmark and New Zealand. They fear that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, may use user data in spy tasks involving China. They also warned of the dangers of promoting propaganda or disinformation campaigns.