“We respectfully disagree with the decision, particularly with the amount of the fine imposed. The DPC’s criticisms focus on features and settings that were in place 3 years ago and we made changes long before the investigation even began, such as setting all under-16 user accounts to private by default,” said Elaine Fox, head TikTok’s European Data Protection Commission, regarding the imposition of a fine by the Irish Data Protection Commission, announced today.

The main points of the position of the representative of TikTok on the issue:

This survey looked at under 18 arrangements and age safeguards as they stood during July-December 2020 only

We are fully committed to continually enhancing user privacy, security and transparency – the findings of this decision are largely retrospective and we have already addressed many of the issues raised through proactive changes made before the investigation even began

While we respect the DPC, we disagree with many aspects of its decision – particularly the percentage of the fine imposed – and are assessing our next steps

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has today fined TikTok €345 million for breaching rules on the protection of minors’ personal data.