The popular Chinese video app TikTok has been sued for several billion pounds for ‘illegally’ collecting the personal information of millions of children in the UK and Europe.
Former children’s commissioner of England Anne Longfield claims the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, collects a huge volume of children’s private information while using the app, including phone numbers, pictures, videos, their exact location and biometric data, and transfers this information to unknown third parties for profit.
He argued that children’s personal information was collected without sufficient consent, which was supposed to be required from an adult, or transparency, which according to him constituted a “severe breach of UK and EU data protection law”.
In 2019, TikTok was fined $5.7m by the US Federal Trade Commission for allegedly illegally collecting personal information from children.
Also in India the app was temporarily banned over allegations that it was “degrading culture and encouraging pornography”, and has since been shut out of the country.
However, TikTok said: “We have robust policies, processes and technologies in place to help protect all users, and our teenage users in particular. We believe the claims lack merit and intend to vigorously defend the action.”