Popular video- sharing platform TikTok has been fined by a South Korean regulator for mishandling data . children's
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said it had fined the company 186 million won , or about $155,000, for failing to adequately protect user data.
The fine is equivalent to 's annual sales ByteDance in South Korea, an amount set for such violationsunder local privacy laws. The KCC said the investigation began last October.
The regulator said TikTok collected data from children under 14 without the consent of their legal guardians.
From May 2017 to December 2019, at least 6,007 files belonging to children were collected.
KCC added that TikTok had not informed users about the transfer of personal data.
According to the research, TikTok uses four cloud companies to store its data (Alibaba Cloud, Fastly, Edgecast, and Firebase).
South Korean user data is stored on servers managed by Alibaba Cloud and located in the US and Singapore, KCC said.
In a statement to the regulator, TikTok said it outsources data storage to third-party companies only when necessary, but regretted not properly informing users about it. The company added that it would improve how it manages user data.
The fine from South Korea is the latest blow to the Chinese company, which has been accused multiple times of collecting data user.
In January, the US military reportedly banned the use of TikTok due to “security concerns.”
In June, India banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, citing national security.
Finally, a few days ago, the company announced that it was withdrawing from the Hong Kong following the imposition of China's new security laws.
