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TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

theguardian.com

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Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#151

Post by bad_user »

kmlx wrote: post #75
jdietrich wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are serious, proportionate fines that meaningfully affect the bottom line. These companies are demonstrably making big changes in order to comply. They have been testing out the boundaries and seeing how close to the wind they can sail, but I think that's coming to an end now that they're seeing the impact of the new approach to enforcement. The clearest sign for me was Meta's decision to delay the launch of Th…

> Of course that creates the possibility of a two-tier internet where EU customers simply don't get access to products this has already happened. google’s bard took it’s time to launch in europe. the young kid in me that always thought we finally have a piece of tech that is beyond what politicians can control, that transcend borders and nationalities is saddened. but it is what it is, and without some breakthroughs…

It's very naive to think that the Internet can transcend in any way law enforcement. You may have distributed protocols and crypto, but the state has a monopoly on violence, it controls all infrastructure, and therefore can control all inputs and outputs.

You can't change the world just with technology, as society is a "social construct". And if people want regulation, that's what they are going to get.

Speaking of EU's data protection regulations, it's funny because many people here claim that it doesn't work, and then are shocked to see that it does.

For what is worth, I think EU's data protections are a good thing. Big Tech acted irresponsibly for too long.

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#152

Post by personomas »

Lacerda69 wrote: post #143
personomas wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) They stopped it 3 years when their was an inquiry. 2) 2.6% of revenue for a company that isn't even profitable. 3) 2.6% of revenue for a global company, how much of this then is only EU revenue?? Are they supposed to get their legs cut off just for breaking one law of the 5 million that they're suppose to comply with? 4) This was a first offense for this company. 5) They're not doing anything harmful with the data…

>Are they supposed to get their legs cut off just for breaking one law Yes, they wont learn otherwise.

[flagged]

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#153

Post by cbg0 »

endisneigh wrote: post #64

seems dumb. there's nothing stopping a child from lying about their age anyways. how about parents who care about such things just block the TikTok app for their children? if TikTok simply had an age selection box, and if you choose anything under 18 it said "too bad. wait until you're 18", I'm sure all of those children would say, "gee darn it, guess I'll wait" :eyeroll. This sort of nonsense is why government's are…

>at the end of the day these fines exist because it's easy money for the EU - there's really no way of stopping children from using TikTok, or any social media for that matter but the EU knows that so they fine the companies and keep the gravy train going.

Actually, the fines exist to make sure laws are respected. Also, the issue wasn't about users lying about their age, it was about underage users signing up for an account and having access to all content, instead of only child-safe content, as other platforms do.

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#154

Post by hef19898 »

personomas wrote: post #149
rsynnott wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ignore Ireland and Luxembourg there (most of the big multinationals are subject to one or the other), then you'll get a much more balanced picture. For most of the countries, most of the top offenders are European.

[flagged]

I would honestly expect someone with such weak opinions so strongly held like you to do their own homework.

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#155

Post by personomas »

adamauckland wrote: post #121
personomas wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like the EU to focus on making laws that actually help us and move us forward. The EU can by the way introduce all sorts of ways to encourage parents to not buy their kids smartphones if they're too young to go on TikTok!

Why should the parent's deny the child a smartphone because Tik Tok has terrible data use policies? You can also use Tik Tok on a laptop, but schoolwork is all online, what's the plan there?

It's the *internet*. You can't regulate everything, it's not going to happen. If they have a smartphone, the kids will get out and explore it if they want to. No amount of GDPR laws and unbelievable penalties are going to stop that.

We need to get back to paper and pencil and the value of social skills. Or use a Chromebook in a sandbox if you must use tech.

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#156

Post by rsynnott »

personomas wrote: post #149
rsynnott wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ignore Ireland and Luxembourg there (most of the big multinationals are subject to one or the other), then you'll get a much more balanced picture. For most of the countries, most of the top offenders are European.

[flagged]

The website in the comment you were replying to _literally does exactly that_. Bloody hell, this website...

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#157

Post by personomas »

valenterry wrote: post #131
personomas wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a social media platform, of course they need PII. We need to relax all laws. Our laws are unbelievable cruel. Business are expected to follow so so so many bureaucratic laws. To fine them 2.6% every time they break one is insane. Imagine how many countries there are out there, how many business laws there are, how much they have to comply with. A lot of these companies already operate on extremely thin margins.…

> It's a social media platform, of course they need PII. No they don't. Remember MySpace? Worked perfectly without PII.

Of course MySpace had PII. People wrote all about themselves.

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#158

Post by personomas »

mschild wrote: post #119
personomas wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a perfect analogy. These fines are unreal - these are not small fines. This company changed it and stopped it, and they still imposed a 2.5% revenue fine for a first offense!!

Yes, not being small fines is the whole point. If this was a 5 Million Euro fine, TikTok wouldn't care at all and factor it into their cost of doing business. Large companies have repeatedly shown that they don't care about small fine. As were speaking Meta is paying to the tune of 100k a day in Norway. Meta knew this was an ongoing issue because the Irish DPC has ruled against them in December, yet they did nothing.

> Large companies have repeatedly shown that they don't care about small fine. As were speaking Meta is paying to the tune of 100k a day in Norway. Meta knew this was an ongoing issue because the Irish DPC has ruled against them in December, yet they did nothing.

One case doesn't mirror the entirety of all of them. Also, that Meta case I'm pretty sure was about something else completely that is questionable in its own right if it should be enforced!

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#159

Post by piva00 »

personomas wrote: post #106
piva00 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a false analogy. Corporations are not people, corporations have massive legal teams to go through every single piece of legislation that might affect them, if they break the law you should consider it's willingly given their resources. They break the law once, get a small fine, they break it again and the fine increases, and keeps increasing until they follow the laws. What is the other option? You can't jail…

It is a perfect analogy. These fines are unreal - these are not small fines. This company changed it and stopped it, and they still imposed a 2.5% revenue fine for a first offense!!

> This company changed it and stopped it, and they still imposed a 2.5% revenue fine for a first offense!!

Knowingly an offense at the time they did it. The company was aware of GDPR, was aware of the consequences of breaking it and still decided to break the law, a large fine is a pretty good and fair punishment given the egregious behaviour.

Are you really defending that just because it was a first time offense a slap on the wrist would be ok to a massive corporation? It's a rules-based system, where the law matters, and the law is to apply a proportional fine to the infringement, no special treatment. I won't be sorry for TikTok, it's criminal behaviour.

TikTok knowingly allowed children to get their personal data harvested against the law, they deserve the punishment.

Re: TikTok fined €345M for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts

#160

Post by 3np »

hef19898 wrote: post #120
personomas wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unbelievable fines, that's the problem in this one case.

The EU should go further: ban TikTok. And regulate social media to death.

Whoa now, slow down there.

Ban some of what TikTok's doing and enforce it fairly? Sure. But let's not actually get more authoritarian here.

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