TikTok Pauses New Privacy Rules in EU After Intervention
A controversial update to TikTok’s privacy agreement will be delayed in Europe. The new rules would violate the GDPR.
It is the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) that announces this. “Following agreements with the DPC, TikTok has agreed to pause the rollout of the new privacy agreement until the DPC can conduct its analysis,” the regulator said in a statement.
With its new privacy agreement, TikTok no longer wants to ask users for permission to show ‘personalized’ ads. The app claims that it can process user data based on “legitimate interest” (the “legitimate interest” you also see in many cookie windows). That adjustment already received a formal warning from the privacy regulator in Italy.
Now the Irish regulator is also going to analyze the system. Since TikTok, like quite a few tech companies, has its European headquarters in Ireland, the DPC is competent for European privacy violations of the company.