Tuesday, April 04, 2023

Britain fines TikTok $16M for misuse of child data; Australia announces ban on federal devices



Both Britain and Australia took regulatory action against TikTok on Tuesday. 
File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

April 4 (UPI) -- Both Britain and Australia took action against TikTok on Tuesday as Western nations continue to crack down on the Chinese-owned video-sharing app over privacy concerns.

Britain's privacy regulator fined TikTok $15.8 million for unlawful use of the data of children younger than 13 and failure to carry out adequate checks to identify and remove more than a million underage children from the platform.

British data protection law says that organizations that use personal data to provide information services to children under 13 must have consent from their parents or caretakers.

"There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws," said Information Commissioner John Edwards.

RELATED Arkansas sues Meta, TikTok over putting children, personal data at risk

"As a consequence, an estimated one million under 13s were inappropriately granted access to the platform, with TikTok collecting and using their personal data. That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll.

"TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better," Edwards said.

The ICO said TikTok allowed around 1.4 million children 13 and younger to use its platform in 2020 -- in breach of its own rules prohibiting children of that age from creating an account.

ICO originally notified TikTok that it intended to impose a $34 million fine, but reduced it to $15.8 million following negotiations.

Pointing out that the fine related to a period between 2018 and 2020, TikTok said it had since "invested heavily" to prevent under-13s from accessing the platform.

"Our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community," a spokesperson said.

The fine came hours after Australia became the latest country to prohibit the use of TikTok on federal government-issued devices on security grounds, following the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, France and EU institutions.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus issued a mandatory directive banning TikTok from devices issued by Commonwealth departments and agencies after receiving advice from intelligence and security agencies.

"The TikTok application poses significant security and privacy risks to non-corporate Commonwealth entities arising from extensive collection of user data and exposure to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law," the directive says.

The ban will come into effect as soon as practicable and exemptions would only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place, Dreyfus said.

People will still be able to use TikTok on their privately-owned personal devices.

TikTok expressed "extreme disappointment" at the decision alleging that it was "driven by politics, not by fact."

"We are also disappointed that TikTok, and the millions of Australians who use it, were left to learn of this decision through the media, despite our repeated offers to engage with government constructively about this policy," TikTok Australia and New Zealand General Manager Lee Hunter told UPI.

"Again, we stress that there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians and should not be treated differently to other social media platforms."

The ban is also likely to be adopted by the country's six states and two territories, but only Victoria has said it will follow suit so far.

"We've always said we'll follow the Commonwealth's guidance when it comes to cybersecurity -- and we'll now work on implementing these changes across the public service as soon as possible," said a spokesperson for Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews.

A spokesperson from the Australian Capital Government government in Canberra said the territory government would work with the Commonwealth to adopt restrictions.

"Based on the Commonwealth's advice, and the desirability of national cybersecurity consistency, the Australian Capital Territory government will consider similar restrictions on territory government devices at a security and emergency management meeting of Cabinet tomorrow."

TikTok has come under increased scrutiny after an investigation by BuzzFeed last year revealed that employees at its parent company ByteDance had repeatedly accessed personal data from U.S.-based users of the app. An internal review that was commissioned by ByteDance revealed that employees had spied on journalists in the United States.

In late February the White House gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government devices amid mounting fears that U.S. data may end up in the hands of Chinese Communist Party members via the Chinese-owned social media platform.

Since then the Biden Administration has been ramping up pressure on TikTok's Chinese owner to sell its stake in the company and has reportedly threatened to implement a broader ban on the app.

Britain announced a ban on TikTok last month as part of a plan to strengthen its policy on the management of other third-party applications on government devices citing the "potentially sensitive nature of information" that they may hold.

"TikTok requires users to give permission for the app to access data stored on the device, which is then collected and stored by the company. Allowing such permissions gives the company access to a range of data on the device, including contacts, user content, and geolocation data," the government said in a statement.

The ban does not apply to government employees' personal devices but the Cabinet Office advised individuals to "be aware of each social media platform's data policies when considering downloading and using them."

No comments:

Post a Comment