Khushi
Tiktok faces a child privacy lawsuit filed in London’s High Court alleged of illegal processing of the private data of millions of European children.
TikTok is the wildly popular video app which is accused of, along with its Chinese parent company ByteDance ltd., violating U.K. and European Union data protection laws. They could face a damages claim worth billions of pounds if successful.
The suit seeks to stop TikTok from “illegally processing millions of childrens’ information” and demands that the company delete all children’s personal information.
Every child that has used TikTok since May 25, 2018, regardless of their account status or privacy settings, may have had private personal information illegally collected by ByteDance through TikTok for the benefit of unknown third parties according to the suit represented by Anne Longfield, the former Children’s Commissioner for England.
Anne Longlfield is a public face of an anonymous 12-year-old girl. She is the lead claimant in the present case, which has been stayed until a Supreme Court decision in a similar case against Google.
“Parents and children have a right to know that private information, including phone numbers, physical location, and videos of their children are being illegally collected,” Longfield said.
A TikTok representative said in the statement, “Privacy and safety are top priorities for TikTok. We have robust policies, processes and technologies in place to help protect all users, and our teenage users in particular.”
The claimants estimate that more than 3.5 million kids are affected in the U.K. alone. This will amount to a potentially hefty bill for the app if it loses.
