A former children’s commissioner in England filed a lawsuit against the video platform on Wednesday Tik Tok He accuses her of illegally collecting personal data from millions of children in the UK and Europe.
Anne Longfield filed a lawsuit Tik Tok And the Chinese parent company ByteDance On behalf of these children, who are under the age of 16 in the European Union and 13 in the United Kingdom, are awaiting full compensation in the billions of pounds, according to the statement.
As stated, there are around 3.5 million minors involved in the UK.
Longfield estimated that all children used Tik Tok Since May 2018, that is, since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, whether or not they have an account, they may be affected by this data collection.
This personal information includes phone numbers, videos, photos, contact location, or even biometric data, such as facial recognition.
The complaint, also filed by the Scott + Scott law firm, states this Tik Tok It collects data without adequate notice, without transparency and without seeking consent, as required by law.
According to the plaintiffs Tik TokWhat or what 800 million users around the worldIntentionally “vague” on data use, “incredibly valuable” for the parent company ByteDanceRegistered in the Cayman Islands, it will generate nearly $ 30 billion in revenue by 2020, two-thirds of which comes from advertising.
“Behind the funny songs, or the challenges of dancing or running, there is something more harmful,” Longfield said. “we want to Tik Tok Putting an end to questionable data collection practices, and we demand that all private information obtained illegally when children use the app be wiped out.
Spokesman Tik Tok He responded by asserting that the complaint was “unfounded” and that the company “intends to firmly defend itself.”
Privacy and security are TikTok’s top priorities and we have robust practices and technologies to protect all our users, teens in particular. “
Tik Tok It was already fined $ 5.7 million in the United States in February 2019 for unlawfully collecting personal data from children under the age of 13, including their names, emails, and postal addresses.
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