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Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

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Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#61

Post by pjc50 »

aurareturn wrote: post #45
SilverBirch wrote: post #40

Two 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.

TikTok EU is based out of Ireland, so they'd have to move the whole datacentre. https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-european-data-centr...

Meanwhile this is a very interesting read on their corporate structure: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/13247/defau...

"On corporate structure specifically, there is a misconception that TikTok UK is a subsidiary of ByteDance's operations in China. This is not the case. TikTok UK is owned by global parent company ByteDance Ltd, incorporated in the Cayman Islands"

.. now, everyone talks about China as a global enemy of freedom and accountability, but I think Grand Cayman is underestimated as a bad actor or protector thereof.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#62

Post by _Algernon_ »

seydor wrote: post #38
_Algernon_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Questionable whether that will still be true in 4 years. At least China can still be expected to operate rationally.

We should remember that Donald Trump is not the only american

Donald Trump is not the only American but he is the only American that matters for foreign policy, considering that checks and balances that are supposed to reign him in have been shown to have no teeth.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#63

Post by kubb »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #60
kubb wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re getting downvoted, but the US foreign policy is more hawkish than China’s by any measure. Internally I’m inclined to believe that it can be hell on earth for minorities.

They are getting downvoted because they are arguing against a straw man. >But the US funding/providing weapons to Israel in the Gaza war is not a genocide? Nowhere did the comment they replied to claim that the war in Gaza isn't a genocide.

You’re right, but if you admit that, it’s hard to claim that China is more brutal than the US, and therefore less trustworthy.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#64

Post by master-lincoln »

seydor wrote: post #38
_Algernon_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Questionable whether that will still be true in 4 years. At least China can still be expected to operate rationally.

We should remember that Donald Trump is not the only american

Yeah, but it seems like half of the other US Americans want him to represent them. So it's not unlikely that whoever comes after Trump acts like him too.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#65

Post by aurareturn »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #60
kubb wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re getting downvoted, but the US foreign policy is more hawkish than China’s by any measure. Internally I’m inclined to believe that it can be hell on earth for minorities.

They are getting downvoted because they are arguing against a straw man. >But the US funding/providing weapons to Israel in the Gaza war is not a genocide? Nowhere did the comment they replied to claim that the war in Gaza isn't a genocide.

  Nowhere did the comment they replied to claim that the war in Gaza isn't a genocide.
The author I responded to thinks China is worse in terms of genocides/killing people than the US. Therefore, the US is more "trustworthy". I gave examples countering that.

The US has always dealt with Islam extremists with bombs and killings. China is doing it through education camps. No, the camps probably aren't pleasant. It's a hard problem that requires a hard solution. But to me, China's way seems way more humane. Viewed in another lens, perhaps China deserves a Nobel Peace prize for their camps instead of being labeled as a genocide.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#66

Post by PurpleRamen »

prof-dr-ir wrote: post #7

'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...

> 'massive' -- by which standards?

Other fines? Going by amount, it seems somewhere in the top 20 of highest single case fines of all time. Top 3 if we just look at privacy fines in Europe.

> It is high time we got used to companies being fined a reasonable fraction of their revenue

How does "getting used to it" changes the classification? It's still a massive amount, even it such numbers are becoming more common. And especially as they should not become common.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#67

Post by master-lincoln »

surgical_fire wrote: post #33
graemep wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> China is an expansionist dictatorship. It would be ridiculous to suggest it is more trustworthy than the US. China never threatened to annex portions of EU countries, unlike the US. If anything, China is definitely more reliable, as its only disputes with EU are on trade, not anything ideological or that threatens the integrity of each party.

EU has issues with human rights violations regularly happening in China. China has even sanctioned European politicians voicing critique. Only recently some of those sanctions were lifted by China so they can negotiate trade agreements with the EU.

China might be more reliable than the US right now, but ideologically they are further away from the EU than the US I think.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#68

Post by lkramer »

graemep wrote: post #25
_Algernon_ wrote: post #19

Earlier 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…

China is definitely not a fun neighbour if you're The Philippines.

One of the big problem with the US suddenly becoming so adversarial (whether rationally so or not) is that the choice for Europe may be to choose between the lesser of 2 evils, which in Europe's eyes could very well end up being China. China at least tend to behave consistently and predictably over a long term. The US radically changing behaviour every 4 years, and now even multiple times within a 100 day span, is just really really difficult to deal with. Not to mention making direct threats to European countries and generally working to oppose European interests.

Re: Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with €530M fine over data transfers to China

#70

Post by switch007 »

faraggi wrote: post #69
codetrotter wrote: post #8

Є in the title of the HN submission is not the Euro symbol. € is.

Also, the € symbol is a suffix to amounts, not a prefix like $.

Not universally

> Placement of the sign varies. Countries have generally continued the style used for their former currencies. In those countries where previous convention was to place the currency sign before the figure, the euro sign is placed in the same position (e.g., €3.50).[7] In those countries where the amount preceded the national currency sign, the euro sign is again placed in that relative position (e.g., 3,50 €).

> In English, the euro sign – like the dollar sign ⟨$⟩ and the pound sign ⟨£⟩ – is usually placed before the figure, unspaced,[8] the reverse of usage in many other European languages

> The European Union's Interinstitutional Style Guide (for EU staff) states that the euro sign should be placed in front of the amount without any space in English, but after the amount in most other languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_sign#Use

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