Security News > 2021 > February > Complaint Blasts TikTok’s ‘Misleading’ Privacy Policies

An umbrella group comprising 44 consumer-privacy watchdog organizations have filed a complaint against TikTok, saying the wildly-popular video-sharing platform has "Misleading" data-collection policies.

"TikTok does not clearly inform its users, especially children and teenagers, about what personal data is collected, for what purpose and for what legal reason," said the BEUC, in a report released Tuesday, along with the complaint.

TikTok needs to "Clearly inform its users, especially in a way comprehensible to children and teenagers, about what personal data is collected, for what purpose and for what legal reason," according to the BEUC. "We consider that some of these, as well as otherpractices are potentially in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation and have brought them to the attention of Data Protection Authorities in the context of their ongoing investigations into the company," said the BEUC. TikTok has previously found itself in hot water when it comes to its younger user base.

Finally, TikTok's terms of service are "Unclear, ambiguous and favor TikTok to the detriment of its users," said the BEUC. "Its copyright terms are equally unfair as they give TikTok an irrevocable right to use, distribute and reproduce the videos published by users, without remuneration," according to the BEUC. What's Next for TikTok.

TikTok has previously come under fire for various security and privacy problems - even last year facing a threat of a ban in the United States out of fear that the app was surreptitiously collecting data on U.S. government employees and contractors to use in China's cyber-activities against the United States.

On the privacy front, in August TikTok was found to be collecting unique identifiers from millions of Android devices without their users' knowledge using a tactic previously prohibited by Google because it violated people's privacy.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/tiktok-complaint-data-collection/163991/