TikTok fined €530 million for sending European user data to China

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined TikTok €530 million (over $601 million) for illegally transferring the personal data of users in the European Economic Area (EEA) to China, violating the European Union's GDPR data protection regulations. The administrative fines imposed by the Irish watchdog consist of a fine of €485 million for its infringement of Article 46(1) GDPR regarding the lawfulness of the data transfers to China and a fine of €45 million for its infringement of Article 13(1)(f) regarding the lack of transparency. TikTok was also ordered to bring its data processing into compliance within six months, with the DPC planning to suspend all data transfers to China if the company fails to update its policies in time. DPC officials pointed out that the issue goes beyond the location of the servers and is also about the risk that Chinese authorities could access the data of European users under domestic laws concerning terrorism and espionage, which contravene ... Read full article.