The TikTok logo is illustrated outside the company’s headquarters in Culver City, California, USA, September 15, 2020. REUTERS / Mike Blake / File Photo
TikTok, the hugely popular video app, and its Chinese parent ByteDance could face billions of pounds (dollars) in damages before the London High Court for allegedly illegally collecting the private data of millions of dollars. European children.
Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner for England and the so-called “litigious friend”, or public face, of an anonymous 12-year-old girl leading the class action, said on Wednesday that the affected children could receive thousands of pounds each if the claim is successful.
Longfield claimed that every child who used TikTok as of May 25, 2018, could have had private personal information illegally collected by ByteDance through TikTok for the benefit of unknown third parties.
“Parents and children have a right to know that private information, including their children’s phone numbers, physical location and videos, is being collected illegally,” she said, as a website detailing the case goes live.
A TikTok representative said that privacy and security are the company’s top priorities and that it has sound policies, processes and technologies to protect all users, especially teenage users.
“We believe that the claims have no merit and we intend to vigorously defend the action,” the representative said.
TikTok is one of the most popular applications in the world – especially among young people – and has around 100 million users in Europe alone. The COVID-19 pandemic, which locked many children at home, helped consolidate its success.
However, the applicants, advised by the law firm Scott & Scott, allege that TikTok violated data protection laws in the UK and the European Union by processing young people’s data without adequate security measures, transparency, guardianship consent or a legitimate interest.
The lawsuit requires the company to delete all of the children’s personal information – and says the damages could reach “billions of pounds” if successful.
Such class actions on data privacy, which automatically give up a defined group in a process, unless individuals give up, are rare in the UK.
The case has been suspended pending a ruling by the UK Supreme Court in a case against Internet giant Google (GOOGL.O) over alleged illegal tracking of iPhone users in 2011 and 2012 by third-party cookies. .
This case will be heard next week.
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