TikTok faces fresh European privacy investigation over China data transfers

By KELVIN CHAN LONDON AP TikTok is facing a fresh European Union privacy study into user statistics sent to China regulators noted Thursday Related Articles Ticker Italian candy giant buys Tony the Tiger Ford recalls over cars Ford recalls over cars in the US due to foreseen fuel pump failure Hot Property Fiske House in Weston a breathtaking classic This entrepreneur spots deepfakes for celebrities Can he help average Joes too What I learned from my first meeting with a financial advisor The Facts Protection Commission opened the inquiry as a follow up to a previous scrutiny that ended earlier this year with a million euro million fine after it uncovered the video sharing app put users at vulnerability of spying by allowing remote access their information from China The Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok s lead input privacy regulator in the -nation EU because the company s European headquarters is based in Dublin During an earlier study TikTok initially recounted the regulator it didn t store European user evidence in China and that content was only accessed remotely by staff in China However it later backtracked and announced that particular information had in fact been stored on Chinese servers The watchdog responded at the time by saying it would consider further regulatory action As a upshot of that consideration the DPC has now decided to open this new inquiry into TikTok the watchdog announced The purpose of the inquiry is to determine whether TikTok has complied with its relevant obligations under the GDPR in the context of the transfers now at issue including the lawfulness of the transfers the regulator reported referring to the European Union s strict privacy rules known as the General Material Protection Regulation TikTok which is owned by China s ByteDance has been under scrutiny in Europe over how it handles personal user information amid concerns from Western officers that it poses a assurance danger TikTok noted that it was one that notified the Details Protection Commission after it embarked on a input localization project called Project Clover that involved building three material centers in Europe to ease shield concerns Our teams proactively discovered this issue through the comprehensive monitoring TikTok implemented under Project Clover the company announced in a declaration We promptly deleted this minimal amount of material from the servers and informed the DPC Our proactive analysis to the DPC underscores our commitment to transparency and input defense Under GDPR European user evidence can only be transferred outside of the bloc if there are safeguards in place to ensure the same level of protection Only countries or territories are deemed to have the same input privacy standard as the EU but China is not one of them