The authority responsible for data protection in France – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL (Opens in a new tab)) – fined TikTok UK and TikTok Ireland €5 million for failing to provide sufficient information about the use of cookies on their site.
After a series of hearings forming part of an investigation against TikTok’s online web platform (not the app), and in an unrecorded capacity, it was found that TikTok failed to provide a clear enough option to opt out of the use of cookies, despite offering one One-click solution to opt-in, discouraging users from opting out.
The investigation conducted between May 2020 and June 2022 also found that the purpose of the cookies on the site was not sufficiently subtle on a first-level information banner, and not sufficient when users clicked on a link within that banner.
TikTok cookies
Numerous violations of Article 82 of the Data Protection Act were found, which sleeping computer (Opens in a new tab) The reports comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which led to the CNIL issuing TikTok with a €5 million fine.
The amount of the fine was reportedly determined “on the basis of the violations identified, the number of persons involved – including minors – and the previous several communications from the CNIL about the fact that refusing cookies should be as simple as accepting them.”, according to an excerpt. From the CNIL website.
CNIL has been challenging the online practices of several other companies in recent months, issuing an €8 million fine for an Apple (Opens in a new tab) On App Store advertising, a huge fine of 60 million euros Microsoft (Opens in a new tab) On the collection of cookies, an additional fine of 800 thousand euros disagreement (Opens in a new tab) Due to failure to comply with certain GDPR regulations, all since November 2022.
said a TikTok spokesperson TechRadar Pro:
“These findings relate to past practices we addressed last year, including making it easier to refuse non-essential cookies and providing additional information about the purposes of some cookies. CNIL itself has highlighted our cooperation during the investigation and user privacy remains a top priority for TikTok.”