The Tiktok platform, fined over 500 million euros because it illegally sent the EU users data to China
Although he assured the four -year investigation that he did not store the users' data in China servers, Tiktok admitted last month that a limited amount of data had been stored in China and deleted since, writes Reuters.
Tiktok has to pay penalties worth 530 million euros because it illegally sent Europe's personal data to China and was not sufficiently transparent with users, the powerful regulatory authority in Ireland said on Friday.
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said Tiktok, owned by Bytedancea in China, failed to show that the personal data of EU users, some of which are accessed from a distance from China, benefits from the high level of protection provided by the EU legislation.
Taking a position for the first time on data transfers to China, the regulatory authority said Tiktok had failed to adequately evaluate the implications of Chinese surveillance laws on Europeans.
These laws – which give the Chinese government extensive powers to order companies to teach data – “differ significantly from EU standards,” Tiktok acknowledged during the investigation.
The DPC found that, although it has assured the four -year investigation that it had not stored the EU users data on China servers, Tiktok admitted last month that a limited amount of data has been stored in China and deleted since.
“CPD takes these recent developments very seriously. We consider what additional regulatory measures could be justified,” said Graham Doyle, Deputy Commissioner of the DPC.
The regulatory authority said Tiktok violated the transparency norms between 2020 and 2022, because it did not inform users that personal data is transferred to China. She mentioned that Tiktok has updated her privacy policy in 2022 and that she is now “conform”.
The company was fined 485 million euros for data transfers to China and 45 million euros for lack of transparency in its privacy policy.
What do tiktok officials say
Tiktok has received a six-month term to align their data processing practices to the EU privacy rules or to suspend all data transfers to this country.
Tiktok said he has vehemently challenged the finding and that he used his own EU legal framework, especially the so-called standard contractual clauses, to grant strictly controlled and limited distance access. The company intends to appeal to the decision.
He also stated that the decision does not take into account the security measures of the data enforced for the first time in 2023, which independently monitors remote access and ensures the storage of EU users in dedicated data centers and the United States.
Tiktok, which has grown rapidly among adolescents worldwide in recent years and has 175 million users in Europe, has added that it has never received an EU users' data application and has never provided them.
“This decision risks creating a precedent with high consequences for whole companies and industries in Europe operating on a global scale,” Tiktok said.
It's not the first applied fine Tiktok
It is for the second time that Tiktok was sanctioned by DPC.
The platform was fined 345 million euros in 2023 for violating the confidentiality legislation regarding the processing of personal data of children in the EU.
The strong Irish regulatory authority in the field of personal data, the main EU authority for many of the most important technology companies in the world, due to their regional premises in Ireland, has also fined companies such as Microsoft, X and Meta.
In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which also covers Member States of the European Economic Area, Liechtenstein and Norway, the main regulatory authority for a particular company can impose fines of up to 4% of its global revenues.
