TikTok is going through a recent European Union privateness investigation into consumer knowledge despatched to China, regulators stated Thursday.
The Information Safety Fee opened the inquiry as a observe as much as a earlier investigation that ended earlier this yr with a 530 million euro ($620 million) wonderful after it discovered the video sharing app put customers vulnerable to spying by permitting distant entry their knowledge from China.
The Irish nationwide watchdog serves as TikTok’s lead knowledge privateness regulator within the 27-nation EU as a result of the corporate’s European headquarters relies in Dublin.
Throughout an earlier investigation, TikTok initially informed the regulator it didn’t retailer European consumer knowledge in China, and that knowledge was solely accessed remotely by employees in China. Nonetheless, it later backtracked and stated that some knowledge had in truth been saved on Chinese language servers. The watchdog responded on the time by saying it will think about additional regulatory motion.
“Because of that consideration, the DPC has now determined to open this new inquiry into TikTok,” the watchdog stated.
“The aim of the inquiry is to find out whether or not TikTok has complied with its related obligations underneath the GDPR within the context of the transfers now at situation, together with the lawfulness of the transfers,” the regulator stated, referring to the European Union’s strict privateness guidelines, often called the Basic Information Safety Regulation.
TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, has been underneath scrutiny in Europe over the way it handles private consumer data amid issues from Western officers that it poses a safety threat.
TikTok famous that it was one which notified the Information Safety Fee, after it launched into an information localization mission known as Undertaking Clover that concerned constructing three knowledge facilities in Europe to ease safety issues.Commercial. Scroll to proceed studying.
“Our groups proactively found this situation by way of the great monitoring TikTok applied underneath Undertaking Clover,” the corporate stated in an announcement. “We promptly deleted this minimal quantity of information from the servers and knowledgeable the DPC. Our proactive report back to the DPC underscores our dedication to transparency and knowledge safety.”
Beneath GDPR, European consumer knowledge can solely be transferred exterior of the bloc if there are safeguards in place to make sure the identical stage of safety. Solely 15 international locations or territories are deemed to have the identical knowledge privateness customary because the EU, however China is just not considered one of them.
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