TikTok Fined €530 Million by Irish Regulator Over Data Privacy Failures
Tanveer Ahmed:
Islamabad: Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has imposed a €530 million (approximately $600 million) fine on TikTok for failing to adequately protect European user data from potential access by Chinese authorities. The penalty also stems from the company’s submission of misleading information during the course of the investigation.
The DPC confirmed that TikTok employees in China had remote access to EEA user data, which the company failed to fully disclose. TikTok initially claimed that no EEA data was stored in China, but later admitted that a limited amount of such data was stored there. The regulator found this to be a serious breach of transparency under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
TikTok, owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, denied sharing data with Chinese authorities and said it has never received or complied with any such request. The company maintains that it is continuing to improve its data governance and security practices.
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