TikTok Fined $370 Million Over Handling of Children's Data in Europe (reuters.com) 16
TikTok has been fined 345 million euros ($370 million) for breaching privacy laws regarding the processing of children's personal data in the European Union, its lead regulator in the bloc said on Friday. From a report: The Chinese-owned short-video platform, which has grown rapidly among teenagers around the world in recent years, breached a number of EU privacy laws between July 31, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said in a statement. It is the first time ByteDance-owned TikTok has been reprimanded by the DPC, the lead regulator in the EU for many of the world's top tech firms due to the location of their regional headquarters in Ireland.
A spokesperson for TikTok said it disagreed with the decision, particularly the size of the fine, and that most of the criticisms are no longer relevant as a result of measures it introduced before the DPC's probe began in September 2021. The DPC said TikTok's breaches included how in 2020 accounts for users under the age of 16 were set to "public" by default and that TikTok did not verify whether a user was actually a child user's parent or guardian when linked through the "family pairing" feature.
A spokesperson for TikTok said it disagreed with the decision, particularly the size of the fine, and that most of the criticisms are no longer relevant as a result of measures it introduced before the DPC's probe began in September 2021. The DPC said TikTok's breaches included how in 2020 accounts for users under the age of 16 were set to "public" by default and that TikTok did not verify whether a user was actually a child user's parent or guardian when linked through the "family pairing" feature.
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Unfortunately. Otherwise, all those drag queens, I mean, Catholic priests, would be worried about being punished for all the sexual abuse and rape [usnews.com] they committed against children.
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all those drag queens, I mean, Catholic priests,
Wow, is that your best insult from high school?
would be worried about being punished for all the sexual abuse and rape
They would be worried about going to jail for a time, just like now. Sexual abuse against children is not the one that gets maximum penalty, whatever the maximum is. Maximum penalty requires someone to die or being tortured, and rape is lower than that. It comes from the principle of proportionality.
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sentence bad corporations that do evil, TO DEATH.
This is already possible. Corporations that commit certain kinds of fraud can be dismantled as part of a sentence. Of course you only can dismantle the subsidiary that lies within the jurisdiction / the country.
Small victory (Score:2)
Fine for mis-handling children's data - TikTok $370M
Fine for mis-handling children - Everyone on Epstein's list $0
Meaningless. (Score:3, Insightful)
370M is chump change for TikTok since they're bankrolled by the CCP for brainwashing and espionage purposes.
Put a few zeroes more and it might actually make a difference.
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Trump should have destroyed TikTok when he had the chance. It is information warfare.
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It is 4% of their global income (9.4 G$ in 2023 https://www.businessofapps.com... [businessofapps.com] ); maximum penalty by EU is set at 10%.
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TikTok's global profit in 2022 was about $3 billion, so this fine represents about 12.3% of their profit for the year. That's not "chump change", that's a massive hit to their income.
This is just the initial fine for past behaviour. If they don't stop doing it immediately, there will be more fines and eventually action to halt their business operations in Europe. It can even extend to criminal charges.
That's not how it works (Score:3)
most of the criticisms are no longer relevant as a result of measures it introduced before the DPC's probe
"I don't need to go to jail your Honor, as I quit shoplifting by myself even before the police came to arrest me".
Yeah... I don't think so.
EU and others are falling for TikTok's magic trick (Score:1)
The TikTok risk is not data collection.
The TikTok risk is that it gives China a user interface to control American brains. They can control public opinion and distract us at will.
Do you know why so many of our representatives think the TikTok problem is data collection and NOT brainwashing?
Because TikTok is the user interface to American brains. And they trained our brains to see data collection as the problem.
https://twitter.com/ScottAdams... [twitter.com]
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Earlier this month, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency warned that Chinese control of TikTok's algorithm could allow the government to carry out influence operations among Western populations.
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