TikTok has settled multiple privacy lawsuits for the eyewatering sum of $92 million. The lawsuits focused on the video-sharing social media platform’s misuse of user data and applies to 89 million TikTok users in the US whose details were allegedly sold to third-party advertisers.
TikTok Settles Privacy Lawsuits
According to NPR, 21 federal lawsuits were brought against TikTok, filed mostly by or on behalf of minors. Some of the plaintiffs are as young as six years old. The lawsuits claim that the company engaged in the “theft of private and personally identifiable TikTok user data.”
You can read the full Plaintiff’s Motion for more information.
The $92 million settlement is the result of a year-long legal battle that required extensive analysis of TikTok’s operation. The platform, which has well-documented privacy issues, allegedly collected and sold personally-identifying information to Facebook, Google, and other tech companies. TikTok data was also sent to third-party companies in China without the permission of its users.
What is more, unknown to its users, included in the TikTok app is surveillance software developed in China. The TikTok app has clandestinely vacuumed up and transferred to servers in China (and to other servers accessible from within China) vast quantities of private and personally identifiable user data and content that could be employed to identify, profile, and track the physical and digital location and activities of United States users now and in the future.
As well as the substantial payment (which isn’t a splash on TikTok’s finances), the lawsuit proposes that TikTok should no longer be able to record user biometric information or GPS data. Furthermore, TikTok must not send the data of its US users overseas.
TikTok Continues to Court Controversy
It wasn’t so long ago that then-President Trump was attempting to ban TikTok from US soil, forcing the company to sell its US operations to an American company. In August 2020, Trump signed an Executive Order in an attempt to push the ban through.
At the time, it was claimed TikTok was a national security risk and that the platform was stealing user data.
Given this lawsuit’s result, it looks like Trump’s suspicions were correct, at least in part. Although TikTok disagrees with the lawsuit, it has settled to avoid “lengthy litigation” and that the company would rather “focus our efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community.”
Still, the app is unlikely to receive an outright ban in the US. It remains to be seen how the new Biden administration will handle TikTok moving forwards.
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