TikTok: Chinese app targeted by new complaints regarding personal data

"Tech companies love to collect as much data about you as possible, but categorically refuse to give you full access to it, as required by European law," Kleanthi Sardeli, a lawyer for the Viennese NGO Noyb that initiated the proceedings, said in a statement.

It had already taken action in January against six Chinese applications on behalf of individuals concerned about the illegal transfer of their data to Beijing.

While e-commerce giants Shein and Temu, as well as consumer electronics app Xiaomi, have since complied with the plaintiffs' requests, "TikTok, AliExpress, and WeChat have continued to violate the GDPR (European General Data Protection Regulation)," providing incomplete responses or ignoring the request, according to Noyb.

The organization has therefore filed three complaints with data protection authorities in Belgium, Greece, and the Netherlands to force the targeted companies to comply. It is also requesting an administrative fine of up to 4% of their global revenues, "to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future."

Owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, the powerful video-sharing platform, with 1.5 billion members, has been in the sights of Western governments for years, who fear its links with Beijing and the possible use of its users' data for espionage or propaganda purposes.

Beijing denies

The Irish Data Protection Authority (DPC), acting on behalf of the European Union, opened an investigation into TikTok on July 10 into the storage of certain personal data on Chinese servers , with Beijing denying any involvement.

The DPC had already fined the social network, whose European headquarters are in Ireland, €530 million in early May for failing to provide sufficient protection to Internet users. European data may only be transferred—that is, stored or made accessible—to a third country if it is deemed sufficiently secure by the EU, such as Japan, the United Kingdom, or the United States.