UK Sues TikTok For Collecting Children's Personal Data

JAKARTA - Former commissioner of child protection in the UK, Anne Longfield has sued the creative video application TikTok. She claims that TikTok has violated its privacy policy by illegally collecting personal data from millions of minors.

The information allegedly taken includes telephone numbers, videos, accurate location data, and biometric data. This clearly contradicts the Personal Data Protection Regulations that have been enforced by the UK.

Launching SykNews, TikTok is required to pay compensation for millions of children affected by data theft. Considering that all data was taken without parental consent or transparency in the use of data in accordance with applicable laws.

"In terms of what they take, there is their address, name, date of birth information, their likes, their interests, who they follow, their habits, profiling stuff, but also the exact geolocation, but also precise geolocation, it is far beyond what is considered precise. You shouldn't do that as a kid", said Longfield.

On the other hand, TikTok ensures its commitment to protecting every personal data of its users. So that these demands are not fundamental and will oppose existing policies and technological processes.

"Privacy and security are TikTok's top priorities and we have strong policies, processes and technology to help protect all our users, and our youth users in particular. We believe these claims are inappropriate and intend to defend such actions with gusto", explained the spokesman of TikTok.

In fact, this is not the first time TikTok has been prosecuted for alleged personal data collection. In 2019, the US Trade Commission fined TikTok $ 5.7 million or around IDR 82.8 billion, for being unable to manage children's data.

Like in many other countries, TikTok is becoming popular with children. According to a report by the Ofcom survey agency, around 44 percent of children aged 8-12 years have created a TikTok account, even though there is a 13 year minimum age limit for using the short video application.