TikTok was fined 530 million euros ($600 million) by its lead EU privacy regulator on Friday over concerns about the way it protects customer information and was ordered to suspend data transfers to China if its processing is not introduced into compliance in 6 months.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said TikTok, owned through China’s ByteDance, failed to show that EU users’ personal data, a number of which are remotely accessed by using the staff in China, were afforded the high stage of safety given for under EU law.
As a result, the video platform did not handle the ability to get access by the Chinese government to the facts under counter-espionage and different laws recognized by TikTok as materially diverging from EU requirements, the DPC said in a declaration.
TikTok Control on Remote access for privacy
TikTok said it strongly contested the finding and that it has used the EU’s own legal framework, in particular, so-referred to as popular contractual clauses, to grant tightly controlled and limited remote access. It plans to attract the ruling.
It also said the selection fails to completely keep in mind data security measures first rolled out in 2023 that independently monitor remote access to and ensure EU user data are stored in centers in Europe and the USA.
Why video platform fined by EU Regulator
TikTok, which has grown amongst teenagers around the arena in recent years and has 175 million users across Europe, introduced that it has not received a request for EU user data from the Chinese government and has not give data to them.
“This ruling risks putting a precedent with a long way-accomplishing outcomes for organizations and industries across Europe that work on a international scale,” TikTok said.