TikTok is misusing kids’ data, says privacy watchdog

A group of privacy commissioners in Canada have accused TikTok of scooping up information about hundreds of thousands of children who shouldn’t have been on the platform.

The Chinese social media giant is also accused of collecting data on Canadian users without properly explaining what it does with that information, the watchdogs added.

In a report issued last week, the Federal Privacy Commissioner, along with commissioners in British Columbia, Québec and Alberta, accused the service of failing to keep children under 13 off its platform. The service’s terms and conditions prohibit people under that age from using TikTok. From the report:

“The tools implemented by TikTok to keep children off its platform were largely ineffective. This was particularly true in respect of the majority of users who are ‘lurkers’ or ‘passive users’, who view videos on the platform without posting video or text content.”

Inadequate age gates and inappropriate data collection

TikTok relied on a voluntary age gate to keep very young users off the platform. That system simply trusts a person to correctly enter their birth date, the report found.

It used stronger protection to stop those under 18 from using its TikTok LIVE live-streaming function, in the form of facial analytics. However when it did use facial analysis, the company didn’t explain to users that it would use that information to determine their age and gender for ads and content recommendations, the privacy commissioners added.

TikTok collects significant data on its users, explained the report. This includes their demographics, interests, and location. A demonstration of its advertising portal even highlighted the possibility of targeting people with ads based on their transgender status. The report said:

“TikTok claimed that this was not supposed to be possible but was unable to explain how or why this option had been available.”

The company also failed to adequately explain to young users about how it would use their data. It used the same messaging that it gave to adults, said the privacy commissioners, who added that even that messaging was inadequate. The report added,

“The investigation uncovered that TikTok removes approximately 500,000 underage users from the platform each year. Where these children were engaging with the platform before being removed, TikTok was already collecting, inferring and using information about them to serve them targeted ads and recommend tailored content to them.”

What TikTok has agreed to do

TikTok has disagreed with the commissioners’ findings, but will nevertheless build three new age assurance systems into its service that will be better at keeping underage users off the platform. It will also make its privacy policy clearer about how it targets advertising and recommends content, and how it uses biometric data, and it will publish a plain-language policy for teens.

Finally it will put a ‘Privacy Settings Checkup’ system in place, making it easier for Canadians to review and set their privacy choices.

This isn’t the first time that Canada’s government has clashed with TikTok. It had already ordered TikTok Technology Canada to wind down operations last November based on concerns about the national security of its owner ByteDance operating on Canadian soil. This didn’t affect people’s ability to use the software in Canada, though. The move prompted TikTok to challenge the order in federal court.

South of the border, a group of investors including Oracle chair Larry Ellison, Dell Technologies chair Michael Dell, and Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are negotiating the acquisition of TikTok’s US operation. A successful bid would see the US data stored in Oracle’s Cloud system.

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