Є in the title of the HN submission is not the Euro symbol. € is.
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Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
41–50 of 248 posts
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#42Now, I'm still waiting for those watchdogs to fine Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and bazillion other companies over data transfer to the USA. Just kidding, I know it won't happen. But at least paying some taxes in Ireland should be possible, shouldn't it?
> Now, I'm still waiting for those watchdogs to fine Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and bazillion other companies over data transfer to the USA.
Why wait when it already happened? Not only are you overly pessimistic, but incorrect as well.
- https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/05/22/us-tech-giant-meta-...
- https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/03/google-analytics-sweden-gd...
- (not a fine, but told to stop transferring) https://www.pymnts.com/cpi-posts/eu-watchdog-orders-european...
Then we have this wonderful website: https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ (which currently has 2583 entries)
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#43Now, I'm still waiting for those watchdogs to fine Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and bazillion other companies over data transfer to the USA. Just kidding, I know it won't happen. But at least paying some taxes in Ireland should be possible, shouldn't it?
Your information on tax is very out of date. All the big tech companies pay loads of tax in Ireland now.
And additionally FB were fined 500mn last week by the same regulator.
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
What bearing does their global revenue have on what Ireland has any jurisdiction to fine them? I'm not a fan or user of TikTok, but what they earn on other continents is none of Ireland's business.
It's a case involving their European customers. If you do business in Europe, there's a bunch of (good!) privacy regulations you have to comply with. One of these is that you're not allowed to transfer the data to a jurisdiction that doesn't follow equivalent protections to the GDPR[0]. TikTok transferred European user data to their Chinese servers, which is a pretty obvious no-go, since the Chinese government is an…
Do you know if there is a reason they would not domicile in Malta? It's an EU Member State, English speaking, and if buying off politicians in Ireland is easy, it must be easier in Malta with a population of only 550,000 people.
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#45Two things I wonder about: first are these fines actually going to happen or is the sort of thing where it gets appealed indefinitely. And second, where do the fines go? It sounds a lot like since Ireland is where Tiktok is getting fined the fines go to the Irish government which would seem crazy. The fines are assessed in the context of the full EU, but only Ireland gets the revenue? This is broken.
If it's truly Ireland only, then Tiktok might just exit the country and not pay the fine. Perhaps this is what Ireland wants?
Ireland is a small market. It'll take forever to make 530m in profit in Ireland for Tiktok.
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Questionable whether that will still be true in 4 years. At least China can still be expected to operate rationally.
Really? A nice rational genocide or two? China is an expansionist dictatorship. It would be ridiculous to suggest it is more trustworthy than the US. The US is actually acting rationally IMO. People just look at headlines and do not dig into the reasons. You might not agree with the reasoning, but it is not irrational. For example the tariffs clearly follow from arguments made by Trump's appointees (such as Bessent a…
The US is already unlawfully sending people to foreign prisons. The US has over decades worked with dictatorships where it benefited them. The US has repeatedly and systematically overthrown legitimate democratic governments in favor of dictatorships where it benefited them. The US is founded on genocide of native Americans. The US has time and time again invaded countries for their resources. The US is the only country that has used nuclear weapons in war (twice).
Don't pretend that the US is some paragon of virtue.
China talks big about Taiwan but actions speak louder than words. So far I see very little action from China and a lot from the US spanning a century of aggression.
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#47'massive' -- by which standards? It is high time we got used to companies being fined a reasonable fraction of their revenue. And TikTok's global revenue last year alone was estimated at $20 billion to $26 billion [1]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/technology/tiktok-ban-byt...
€530M is enough to be a deterrent under normal circumstances.
Now we all know it is not normal but then it should be handled with a lawsuit/law enforcement. Don’t think any organisation is going to do that far alone.
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
What bearing does their global revenue have on what Ireland has any jurisdiction to fine them? I'm not a fan or user of TikTok, but what they earn on other continents is none of Ireland's business.
It's a case involving their European customers. If you do business in Europe, there's a bunch of (good!) privacy regulations you have to comply with. One of these is that you're not allowed to transfer the data to a jurisdiction that doesn't follow equivalent protections to the GDPR[0]. TikTok transferred European user data to their Chinese servers, which is a pretty obvious no-go, since the Chinese government is an…
> Every major tech company is therefore in Ireland because the country is small enough to essentially steamroll local politicians with lobby money
No, it's because Ireland had a very low corporation tax with the strategy of becoming the preferred HQ for foreign companies in the EU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_tax_in_the_Republi...
"By 2018, Ireland had received the most U.S. § Corporate tax inversions in history, and Apple was over one–fifth of Irish GDP. Academics rank Ireland as the largest tax haven; larger than the Caribbean tax haven system."
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#49Far better than the ban them idea tbh.
Although I suspect US regulators won't like this approach because they want to syphon EU users data up as much as China.
Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China
#50Two things I wonder about: first are these fines actually going to happen or is the sort of thing where it gets appealed indefinitely. And second, where do the fines go? It sounds a lot like since Ireland is where Tiktok is getting fined the fines go to the Irish government which would seem crazy. The fines are assessed in the context of the full EU, but only Ireland gets the revenue? This is broken.
> And second, where do the fines go?
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the income from the money eventually flows into the overall EU budget, so it's like we (EU residents) get a tiny rebate on our taxes. But seems to also depend on each country, Spain is somewhat unique in that the DPA seems to keep it themselves.