Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

apnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 248 posts

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

#101

Post by tlb »

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...

Worse than the small amount is the length of time it took. If you accept the accusations at face value, China has been spying on a large fraction of EU citizens for 4 years and can keep doing it for another 6 months (after which they probably won't actually stop) for the eventual fine of a few dollars per victim. The US isn't moving any faster, and most other countries aren't moving at all.

So the end result is that potentially hostile countries can run vast spying operations for a long time with no major consequences. As long as they do it with funny videos with annoying soundtracks.

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

#104

Post by tpm »

diggan wrote: post #50
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.

> 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.

You are partly wrong, the money from fines eventually flows into the overall EU budget, which is financed by contributions from member countries, so this contribution will be a bit lower, but this will not propagate into lower taxes for us.

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

#105

Post by tossandthrow »

s_dev wrote: post #99

There’s a lot of frustration and cynicism in this thread, but I suspect some misunderstandings might be fuelling it. First off, Ireland is part of the EU, and under GDPR’s 'one-stop-shop' system, the country where a company has its EU headquarters in Ireland, in the case of many tech giants it takes the lead on enforcement for the entire EU. So when Ireland’s regulator fines a company under GDPR, they’re essentially…

> ... percentage of a company’s global revenue or as a large fixed amount whichever is higher.

It should be noted that this is used to establish a maximum fine.

Then the regulator can fine at X% of the maximum fine.

It should be noted, that this is established to avoid that individual EU member states fine too little to attract business (Like Ireland has previously had issues on re. too little taxing)

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

#106

Post by Aperocky »

nickdothutton wrote: post #103

Reminder: Meta was fined 1.2 billion euro by the Irish data protection authority. May 22, 2023 was the enforcement date. Question: How many euro do you think have been paid as of today, 2nd May 2025?

Don't leave us hanging, none of us know.

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

#107

Post by lukan »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #46
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…

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 coun…

"So far I see very little action from China"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Peo...

I would argue with them getting stronger, they might get more active.

Their fish trawlers behave pretty agressive worldwide. And they are part of their military.

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

#108

Post by [deleted] »

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...

[deleted]

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

#109

Post by Alifatisk »

Aperocky wrote: post #106
nickdothutton wrote: post #103

Reminder: Meta was fined 1.2 billion euro by the Irish data protection authority. May 22, 2023 was the enforcement date. Question: How many euro do you think have been paid as of today, 2nd May 2025?

Don't leave us hanging, none of us know.

I agree, the parent comment should've just said it. Had to look it up, seems like they've paid none so far

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

#110

Post by diggan »

tpm wrote: post #104
diggan wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

You are partly wrong, the money from fines eventually flows into the overall EU budget, which is financed by contributions from member countries, so this contribution will be a bit lower, but this will not propagate into lower taxes for us.

> this will not propagate into lower taxes for us.

Yeah, sorry if I was unclear, I didn't mean that residents would literally have a line item on their tax bill because of the fines. But since the fines go into the overall budget, it's like the budget grows (in a very small amount) without people having higher taxes.

Post reply on HN