The ICO says that TikTok could face a £27 million fine after an ICO investigation found that the company may have breached UK data protection law by failing to protect children’s privacy when using the TikTok platform. The ICO has issued TikTok Inc and TikTok Information Technologies UK Ltd with a Notice of Intent setting out the ICO’s provisional view that TikTok breached UK data protection law between May 2018 and July 2020.

The ICO investigation found that TikTok may have:

• processed the data of children under the age of 13 without appropriate parental consent;
• failed to provide proper information to its users in a concise, transparent and easily understood way; and
• processed special category data without legal grounds to do so.

The Commissioner’s findings in the Notice are provisional. No conclusion should therefore be drawn at this stage that there has, in fact, been any breach of data protection law or that a financial penalty will ultimately be imposed. The ICO will consider any representations from TikTok before taking a final decision. To read the ICO’s press release in full, click here.