TikTok fined £12.7m for misusing children's data

[number13]

Summary

 Government watchdogs in the UK have fined TikTok just under £13m for what they feel is the misuse of children's data.  It's half of what was threatened by the watchdog previously, and TikTok are combating it, but it seems to centre largely around their allowing children under 13 to register without parental consent.

 

Quotes

Quote

 Information commissioner John Edwards said: "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.

 

"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. Our £12.7m fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had."

 

My thoughts

 Obviously this is a big financial punch to the ubiquitous platform, and it'll be interesting to see how they contest it (and the results of such). I think everyone knows that various websites which shouldn't allow underage users to sign up don't do nearly enough to prevent it (I for instance had to fight with change.org over them allowing my daughter - aged 12 at the time - to set up an account and pay to one of their fundraisers, despite them claiming that users should be 16+ - interestingly, their sign-up page doesn't ask your age...). It's a decision that could have ramifications for the wider industry, as (like I said about my personal experience with change.org) not enough is done for age verification across many, many sites. 

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65175902 

[SorryBella]

11 minutes ago, number13 said:

Obviously this is a big financial punch

 

yeah, yeah uh huh.

[mr moose]

Governments just seem to be getting weaker and weaker as time goes on,  I mean they don't have to be dictatorships in order to pull these companies into line, but at the moment they are literally doing nothing.   I guess they feel it is more dangerous if a toilet sign offends a persons chosen identity than it is for a data company owned by a foreign government to spy on our children.

[number13]

Just now, mr moose said:

Governments just seem to be getting weaker and weaker as time goes on,  I mean they don't have to be dictatorships in order to pull these companies into line, but at the moment they are literally doing nothing.   I guess they feel it is more dangerous if a toilet sign offends a persons chosen identity than it is for a data company owned by a foreign government to spy on our children.

To be honest, I don't even care where the company in question originates - the insidious ways tech is being used to track folk in every conceivable manner is something that, as you say, needs to be pulled in line. Meta being an obvious and clear example of such, for instance. 

 

But I guess it's like everything else; we can't have nice things for long until someone finds a way to abuse them for power/money/both.

[SignatureSigner]

literally a slap on the wrist to a company of that size.

 

I deleted tiktok over a year ago now and find my life is better off without it.

[Arika]

colour me: not fucking surprised at all.

[Donut417]

Just giving the USA another reason to ban them. Because I can guarantee this incident will be cited. 

[jaslion]

So they got off basically scott free and had to pay administrative fees.

[GuiltySpark_]

Cost of doing business. 

[LAwLz]

What exactly do the UK government want TikTok to do? I don't really see any easy way to make sure children under the age of 13 can't access the app. 

Oh wait, it's the UK government. They want websites to require a government issued ID to sign up. 

 

If China fined a US firm for not tying all online accounts to a Chinese government issued ID then I am sure people would be mad. But now it's the UK government requesting the same thing from a Chinese company so therefore everything is fine...

[ZestyJalapeno]

12.7 million quid to datafarm the pre-teen demographic of a super popular app seems absurdly cheap. Whatever happened to percentage of yearly revenue as a fine?

[Donut417]

12 minutes ago, Dogeystyle said:

Whatever happened to percentage of yearly revenue as a fine?

Brexit I’m guessing as I think those are EU rules. 

[ZestyJalapeno]

3 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Brexit I’m guessing as I think those are EU rules. 

ahhh give me the gun, I'll do it myself!

[suicidalfranco]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

If China fined a US firm for not tying all online accounts to a Chinese government issued ID then I am sure people would be mad.

But then again, China simply won't allow any foreign company they don't have a direct control in to operate inside their country.

 

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

But now it's the UK government requesting the same thing from a Chinese company so therefore everything is fine...

Never seen any laws in the western hemisphere forcing Chinese companies to have a "government agent"/"party member" within the company structure making sure they comply to governments requests

[LAwLz]

28 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

But then again, China simply won't allow any foreign company they don't have a direct control in to operate inside their country.

Yeah, China would probably just outright bans the apps instead. That's not something we'd see other countries do. Oh wait...

 

29 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Never seen any laws in the western hemisphere forcing Chinese companies to have a "government agent"/"party member" within the company structure making sure they comply to governments requests

The US for example is a bit less obvious with it. They don't install board members inside the companies. They force the companies to comply with their demands through other means. 

[suicidalfranco]

42 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Yeah, China would probably just outright bans the apps instead. That's not something we'd see other countries do. Oh wait...

attempts were made vs. Actually doing it

 

46 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

The US for example is a bit less obvious with it. They don't install board members inside the companies. They force the companies to comply with their demands through other means. 

Of course they do, doesn't make China's action less evil or that they should be left doing their own thing Scott's free

[dizmo]

Haha, what? That's nothing. They won't even notice a difference 

 

 

7 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

 

yeah, yeah uh huh.

I'm glad someone did it so that I didn't have to  

7 hours ago, SignatureSigner said:

literally a slap on the wrist to a company of that size.

 

I deleted tiktok over a year ago now and find my life is better off without it.

Not even a slap really. There was an interesting stat that said if you watch Tiktok videos for half an hour a day, by the end of the year you've spent 2 weeks of your life. On top of that, most people have an incredibly hard time recalling the last 5 TikTok's they watched. So, what are you really taking in? Answer: fuck all. 

[ouroesa]

Tiktok replies with "Mild shock"

[LAwLz]

I feel like a lot of people are just jumping on the "TikTok bad" train and going "fine them more!" without actually looking into this story.

Like I asked earlier, what do people want them to do exactly? Maybe we should dial down the "TikTok bad!" comments and actually discuss the implications of the way governments decide to punish TikTok? What they are doing against TikTok will probably happen against other websites as well. So even if you dislike TikTok and want it banned we shouldn't just approve of anything that harms TikTok without any second thought put into it.

 

If we start fining all websites that can't validate if a user is above 13 years old then it will impact far more than just TikTok. This forum for example. Should we start holding Linus responsible if someone who is 12 years old lies about their age and sign up to this forum? 

 

That was my point before the thread started to derail into "China is worse so let's ignore what other countries are doing".

I don't like China overall either. I think it's a shitty country and I am glad I don't live there. But I don't think implementing things they do in China (online IDs used for tracking people, banning certain social media apps, weakening encryption etc) is the right way to "stick it" to Chinese companies. I actually find it quite scary that as soon as governments started framings things like "we do it to harm China" everyone seemed to automatically be fine with policies they revolted against back when they were framed as "we do it to protect children".

[williamcll]

20 hours ago, mr moose said:

Governments just seem to be getting weaker and weaker as time goes on,  I mean they don't have to be dictatorships in order to pull these companies into line, but at the moment they are literally doing nothing.   I guess they feel it is more dangerous if a toilet sign offends a persons chosen identity than it is for a data company owned by a foreign government to spy on our children.

This is democracy in motion.

[suicidalfranco]

2 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Should we start holding Lis responsible if someone who is 12 years old lies about their age and sign up to this forum? 

yes.

[LAwLz]

37 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

yes.

I thought you were for Internet freedom and privacy.

What is being suggested and pushed regarding this issue is that everyone has to identify themselves using government issued IDs in order to access Internet services. It would be a massive blow to privacy.

[suicidalfranco]

2 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I thought you were for Internet freedom and privacy.

i am.

Still there is no negating the adverse effect the internet is having on developing minds. Sometimes the best medicine is the bitter one.

6 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

What is being suggested and pushed regarding this issue is that everyone has to identify themselves using government issued IDs in order to access Internet services. It would be a massive blow to privacy.

it's not the only way, and the industry has come with other solution to comply to this kind of laws

[mr moose]

3 hours ago, williamcll said:

This is democracy in motion.

I am sure it is not that simple, but I concede that when you have politicians pandering to the people for votes, then the current social narrative will trump rational policy.

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

I am shocked. SHOCKED!

 

Well, not that shocked.