TikTok, the popular video sharing platform, has come under fire again. This time in South Korea as regulators are fining social media giant for the mishandling of child data.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has fined the company for 186 million won or roughly 155,000 US Dollars. For those unaware, the KCC acts as the regulator and overwatches the country’s telecommunications and data related sectors. The fine it has imposed on TikTok is due to the company failing to protect users’ private data, especially regarding its younger user demographic.
Notably, the fine is equivalent to 3 percent of the company’s annual sales within the country, which is the amount designated for such violations under local privacy laws. KCC began the investigation into this matter back in October 2019 and found that TikTok collected that data of children under the age of 14 without consent from their legal guardians.
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According to KCC, a minimum of 6,0007 pieces of child data were collected between 31st May 2017 and 6th December 2019. Furthermore, TikTok had also failed in notifying its users of the transfer of personal data overseas. The investigation also revealed that the company uses four cloud service providing companies, namely Alibaba Cloud, Fastly, Edgecast, and Firebase.
The news arrives just a few weeks after recent negative events for the company. India, where one of its highest userbases resides, has banned the app over security concern, similar to the US Army back in January. The company also recently announced that it would be exiting the Hong Kong market, due to China’s new security laws.
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(Via)
