US Sues TikTok Over 'Massive-Scale' Privacy Violations of Kids Under 13 (reuters.com) 10
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday against TikTok and parent company ByteDance for failing to protect children's privacy on the social media app as the Biden administration continues its crackdown on the social media site. The government said TikTok violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that requires services aimed at children to obtain parental consent to collect personal information from users under age 13. The suit (PDF), which was joined by the Federal Trade Commission, said it was aimed at putting an end "to TikTok's unlawful massive-scale invasions of children's privacy." Representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the suit "underscores the importance of divesting TikTok from Chinese Communist Party control. We simply cannot continue to allow our adversaries to harvest vast troves of Americans' sensitive data."
The DOJ said TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts, and then create and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. TikTok collected personal information from these children without obtaining consent from their parents. The U.S. alleges that for years millions of American children under 13 have been using TikTok and the site "has been collecting and retaining children's personal information." The FTC is seeking penalties of up to $51,744 per violation per day from TikTok for improperly collecting data, which could theoretically total billions of dollars if TikTok were found liable. TikTok said Friday it disagrees "with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform."
The DOJ said TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts, and then create and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. TikTok collected personal information from these children without obtaining consent from their parents. The U.S. alleges that for years millions of American children under 13 have been using TikTok and the site "has been collecting and retaining children's personal information." The FTC is seeking penalties of up to $51,744 per violation per day from TikTok for improperly collecting data, which could theoretically total billions of dollars if TikTok were found liable. TikTok said Friday it disagrees "with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform."
So, uhhh (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess all those companies respect people's privacy and would never think of selling personal data to anyone with $$$
Re:So, uhhh (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
But those companies [...] so no risk for them to ever get sued by the US.
Dead wrong.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/0... [nytimes.com]
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0... [nytimes.com]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0... [nytimes.com]
Re:So, uhhh (Score:5, Informative)
Facebook/Meta? Google? Amazon? GM?
They were all fined. Why would TikTok get a free pass?
* Google/Youtube fined 170 millions in 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/0... [nytimes.com]
* Meta/Instagram fined 400 millions in 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0... [nytimes.com]
* Amazon fined 25 million in 2023 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0... [nytimes.com]
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Facebook/Meta? Google? Amazon? GM?
They were all fined. Why would TikTok get a free pass?
Non-Western Exceptionalism;
part of the reparations for the Opium Wars;
part payment in lieu of cleaning up the hundreds of thousands of unexploded bombs in Laos;
part reparations to the families of Chinese killed in Indonesia in the early 1960s.
Keep those payments coming!
Re: So, uhhh (Score:2)
Or the simple answer, we haven't gotten around to it ubtil now.
Re: (Score:2)
For the most part those companies aren't stupid enough to have a bunch of email chains admitting to their violations, including things like noticing dozens to hundreds of children's accounts that pass all the hilariously strict criteria for deletion, are marked for deletion, and which never get deleted.
Americans are kind of funny ... (Score:1)
This is TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Yes it is reposted on Youtube.
How is that "collecting data"?
The only data, TikTok has about me: is my google fake mail address, I used to sign up there. /FACEPALM
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That can happen on every social platform.
And it is the responsibility of the parents to teach their kids.
Has nothing to do with the platform.
Story: I met a French guy on an island - with his 4 year old kid. She wanted to use my iPad to log into facebook. Took me a while to figure how to log out. So she could log in.
She was fooling around on it, and I asked: why are all your friends old women and old men?
She told me: we have to be careful on the internet. Many bad people. This are my class mates, we all use