TikTok fined $600 million for sending user data to China
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Summary
The Irish court has fined TikTok €530m (perhaps620m) for violating GDPR laws, which specify that any data transferred to countries outside the EU must be afforded the same data protection as afforded to European citizens.
The court deemed China’s anti-terrorism and counterespionage laws a risk and expressed concern that Chinese authorities could access the data of European users.
This is the third-largest fine handed out under GDPR; Meta and Amazon have been fined larger amounts.
TikTok was also fined €485m for transferring the data to China, and €45m for its privacy policy failing to adequately explain the data transfers.
TikTok has six months to appeal the decision and bring its data processing policy into line with EU regulations; it has already updated its privacy policy, but this was not deemed sufficient.
The company has promised to invest €12bn ($13.6bn) in data centres in the EU.
TikTok has already been fined €367m ($412m) this year in Ireland under GDPR for its processing of children’s data.