Britain’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has fined Chinese social network TikTok £12.7m (€14.4m) for a series of data breaches.
Among the offenses is the illegal use of personal data of minors, added the ICO, which is an independent UK data protection regulator.
The organization estimates that the social network for sharing short videos allowed up to 1.4 million children under the age of 13 in the UK to use its platform in 2020, despite its own rules preventing those under that age from creating their own accounts.
UK data protection law states that individuals who use personal data in providing information services to children under 13 must have the consent of their parents or guardians, the ICO said in a statement, which TikTok did not.
In addition, the social network did not carry out adequate controls to identify minors on its platform.
The fine came to light after the UK government banned installation of TikTok on professional mobile phones in March for security reasons.
Conservative chief executive Rishi Suanka stressed that he made the decision given that official devices may contain sensitive information, although the ban does not apply to personal mobile phones of members of the executive branch.
With this decision, the UK joins other countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, as well as the European Union, in vetoing TikTok from China’s ByteDabce from its employees’ professional devices.
The social network denies making it easier for the Chinese government to access its users’ data.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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