Brazil fine owner of TikTok at 25.57 million euros

A decision of the National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) was published in the Official Gazette of the Union, after the completion of a process that lasted almost two years.

The supervisory and regulatory body reported, in a note, that it identified practices of the Chinese company in disagreement with the General Data Protection Act (LGPD) of the country in two modalities of access to the platform.

The first is the so-called ‘feed’ without registration’, available to any user without the need to create an account on the social network, and the ‘feed’ with registration, linked to a profile registered in TikTok.

Throughout the process, ANPD points out that it identified that the mechanisms adopted by TikTok “were not sufficient to prevent the improper treatment of personal data of children and adolescents from the outset”.

It is also reported by the Brazilian government agency that, for the technical area of ANPD, “concrete evidence of the effectiveness of technical and organizational measures was lacking to ensure compliance of operations with LGPD”. 

In addition to the fine, the Chinese platform is obliged to eliminate data collected irregularly and, according to the statement, “ByteDance has also committed to implementing a compliance plan to improve the protection of children and adolescents in TikTok”.

In practice, the social network should automatically apply the most restrictive privacy settings to accounts of children under 16 years old, which can only be changed with the permission of those responsible.

In addition, the company should strengthen parental control systems and implement stricter content filters. 

In the unregistered version, for example, TikTok should suspend ads throughout Brazil, limit the experience to content suitable for all ages, and reduce screen time to 12 hours.

Still in the unregistered version, users will not be able to publish or watch live broadcasts, the so-called ‘lives’.

During the press conference, ANPD president Waldemar Gonçalves Ortunho Júnior reported that the agency has a work of “technical action” and “many upon the law”.

ANPD Superintendent Fabrício Guimarães Madruga Lopes reiterated that the agency understood that “the company was not taking the necessary measures” to prevent children and adolescents from accessing the platform.

“[ByteDance] was treating data from children and adolescents without being able to do so, because her own platform [TikTok] recognized that it was inadequate for children under the age of 13,” he explained

Lopes also said that last Friday, ANPD opened two monitoring processes in relation to 22 platforms to check whether they comply with the Digital ACE, the Statute of Children and Adolescents in the ‘internet’ environment.