Chinese social media platform TikTok could be facing a fine of £27 million for purportedly ‘failing to protect children’s privacy’ following a series of damning allegations made by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO has now issued the media giant with a notice of intent, a legal document served before a potential fine, which alleges that between May 2018 and July 2020, the platform may have processed the data of children under the age of 13 without the required parental consent.
The notices also accuses TikTok of failing to provide proper information to its users in a concise, transparent and easily understood way and of processing special category data without legal grounds to do so.
“We all want children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections,” Information Commissioner, John Edwards said.
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“Companies providing digital services have a legal duty to put those protections in place, but our provisional view is that TikTok fell short of meeting that requirement.
He concluded: “I’ve been clear that our work to better protect children online involves working with organisations but will also involve enforcement action where necessary.”
The ICO has added however that its findings are provisional and that no conclusions on whether TikTok has indeed broken data protection laws can be drawn.
Commenting on the notice of intent, a spokesperson for the platform said: “This notice of intent, covering the period May 2018-July 2020, is provisional and as the ICO itself has stated, no final conclusions can be drawn at this time.
“While we respect the ICO’s role in safeguarding privacy in the UK, we disagree with the preliminary views expressed and intend to formally respond to the ICO in due course.”
