France Imposes a Fine of $5.4 Million on TikTok for Inappropriate Cookies and Online Tracking
upstart writes:
France imposes a fine of $5.4 million on TikTok for inappropriate cookies and online tracking:
It seems that TikTok just can't catch a break. After getting banned from state-owned computers and mobile devices in over 20 states in the United States of America, where it faces a possible federal-level ban, the social media company was fined $5.4 million by France for inappropriate handling of cookies and online tracking.
France's CNIL or National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, the protection watchdog whose job it is to ensure that all companies operating in France abide by the nation's data laws, said that its investigation only concerned the website tiktok.com and not the service's much more heavily used smartphone applications.
The CNIL discovered that TikTok users who used the web version, found it more difficult to reject internet trackers than to accept them. Additionally, the authority determined that internet users were not adequately notified about TikTok's usage of cookies.
[...] According to regulations set forth by the European Union, websites must expressly request internet users' permission before using cookies, which are little data files saved when a user is browsing the web.
The fine comes just a day after TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew met a contingent of EU officials in Brussels and assured them that TikTok takes data privacy seriously and will work closely with officials to safeguard users.
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