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A day before they were set to go into effect, TikTok paused modifications to its privacy policy for targeted advertising as the lead European Union regulator investigates whether they were compliant with the bloc’s data protection laws.
TikTok earlier informed its users that it would start delivering targeted advertisements from July 13 without obtaining their permission to use the data saved on their devices.
Concerning this, Italy’s data protection authority notified the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in Ireland about suspected violations of EU data laws by TikTok with the planned policy changes.
For TikTok and other leading online companies, the Irish body serves as the primary EU regulator.
The DPC stated, “Further to engagement with the DPC yesterday (11th July), TikTok has now agreed to pause the application of the changes to allow for the DPC to carry out its analysis.”
It further stated that it had brought up the issue with the other data supervisory bodies within the EU’s 27 member states.
The Italian data protection agency applauded TikTok for what it called a “responsible decision on the part of TikTok to suspend the planned changes.”
Infringements of privacy can result in fines of up to 4% of a company’s global revenue for businesses operating in the EU.
The processing of children’s personal data and the transfers of personal data to China are the two other probes the DPC has already begun into TikTok.
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Although it acknowledged postponing the changes to its privacy policy in Europe, TikTok, which has experienced fast growth, especially among younger users, defended its ambitions for targeted advertising.
A spokesperson for TikTok said, “We believe that personalised advertising provides the best in-app experience for our community and brings us in line with industry practices, and we look forward to engaging with stakeholders and addressing their concerns.”
TechCrunch reported that the use of a “legitimate interest” justification by TikTok to run behavioral advertising had drawn criticism from privacy experts.
The report said a data processor must perform a series of tests to determine whether it has a legitimate purpose for carrying out the processing.
Secondly, it also has to test whether the processing is required for the purpose identified for legitimate interest to be a valid legal basis for processing personal data under EU law.
There is also a third test known as the balancing test, where the rights and freedoms of the people whose information might be used must be considered.
TechCrunch said the balancing test would likely be the biggest obstacle to TikTok’s attempt to use legitimate interests to run behavioral advertising, as the test requires it to justify any impact on individuals.
According to U.K.’s data protection watchdog ICO, this can include users’ ability to exercise their data protection rights and not lose control of their data or experience any social or economic disadvantage.
Source: Reuters, TechCrunch
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
