TikTok UK and Ireland slapped with hefty fine for violating privacy rules

The French data protection regulator, the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) has come down hard on TikTok for what it said was a failure on the social media platform’s part to inform users thoroughly on the purpose of the cookies on its site as well as providing them with an easy way to decline those cookies.  

TikTok has since been fined 5 million Euros. That is R93 033 816.

According to the CNIL, it had carried out several online investigations on the “tiktok.com” website and on the basis of documents requested from the company by the CNIL. The authority confirmed that the investigations were carried out between May and June 2022.  

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The authority said that it had found that TikTok UK and TikTok Ireland had failed to comply with the obligations set out in Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act.

Inspections

“During the inspection carried out in June 2021, the CNIL noted that although the companies, TikTok UK and TikTok Ireland, did offer a button allowing immediate acceptance of cookies, they did not put in place an equivalent solution (button or other) to allow the internet user to refuse their deposit as easily. Several clicks were required to refuse all cookies, as opposed to just one to accept them,” CNIL published in a statement.

“The restricted committee considered that making the refusal mechanism more complex actually discouraged users from refusing cookies and encouraged them to prefer the ease of the “accept all” button.

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“It concluded that this process infringed the freedom of consent of Internet users and constituted a violation of Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act, since it was not as easy to refuse cookies as to accept them at the time of the online investigation carried out in June 2021 and until the implementation of a ‘Reject all’ button in February 2022,” it added.

What are cookies?

According to Kaspersky, cookies help web developers give users more personal, convenient website visits. Cookies let websites remember you, your website logins, shopping carts and more. While this may seem helpful, the cyber protection company also described them as a treasure trove of private info for criminals to spy on.

*Compiled by Devina Haripersad