The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has decided to fine TikTok a massive sum of money for non-compliance with certain provided guidelines. The video-sharing platform has been fined €750,000 as it has been found to violate the regulation present in Article 12(1) of the EU"s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
TikTok apparently only provided the app"s privacy and usage policies to its Dutch users in the English language instead of offering it in native Dutch. And as stated above, this goes against Article 12(1) of the GDPR that demands companies to communicate that information in a "concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible" way. Essentially the Dutch DPA feels that the ByteDance-owned company has "failed to provide an adequate explanation of how the app collects, processes and uses personal data". And since a lot of young children use the platform, the DPA felt this step was necessary.
The DPA has also praised TikTok for making a number of changes to the app for making it safer for children to use. For example, the option for more parental control has been added. Ms Verdier of the Dutch DPA has stated:
It can be fun to make videos together and see what other people make. But there are also people who are on TikTok for the wrong reasons. People who share videos that are meant to be private, who bully users or engage in grooming behaviour. The DPA welcomes the changes TikTok has made.
However, the Dutch authority is still not fully pleased by the fact that users, especially younger ones, can still lie about their age to get on the platform and view inappropriate content. You can find the DPA"s official press release here.