TikTok faces possible fine for failing to protect children’s privacy

TikTok could be fined by the government for breach of the data protection law by failing to protect young users privacy.

The Information Commissioner s Office has issued a notice of intent to the Chinese-owned social media company, a legal document that precedes a potential fine.

It says that TikTok may have processed the data of under 13 s without appropriate parental consent, that it has failed to provide proper information to its users in a concise, transparent and easy to understandable way, and that it has processed special-category data without the legal grounds to do so between May 2018 and July 2020.

John Edwards, the information commissioner, said he wanted children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections. Companies providing digital services have a duty to put in place protections, but our provisional view is that TikTok fell short of meeting that requirement.

I have been clear that our work to protect children online involves working with organisations, but also involves enforcement action where necessary. The Children's Code, introduced a year ago, put in place data protection codes of practice for online services that are likely to be accessed by children, with financial penalties a possibility of serious breaches.

Edwards said that they are looking into how over 50 different online services are conforming to the Children's Code and have six investigations looking into companies providing digital services who haven't taken seriously their responsibilities around child safety. The commissioner's office emphasised that its findings on TikTok were provisional and that it would carefully consider any representations from the company before making a final decision.

A spokesman for TikTok said: "This notice of intent, covering the period May 2018 to July 2020, is provisional and no final conclusions can be drawn at this time," he said. While we respect the role of the ICO in safeguarding privacy in the UK, we disagree with the preliminary views and intend to respond in due course. Baroness Kidron, an architect of the Children's Code, of the 5 Rights Foundation, who campaigns to protect children's data, welcomed the authority's intervention. She said tech can be held accountable for the safety and privacy of children.

In the first half of the year, TikTok's popularity with young people helped it increase its advertising revenues by more than 50 per cent compared to a 20 per cent increase at Meta, Facebook's American parent company.