TikTok hit by fresh complaint over data access

The social media giant has been in the crosshairs of Western governments for years over fears that personal data could be used by China for espionage or propaganda purposes

Online privacy campaigners filed fresh complaints against social media giant TikTok and two other Chinese-owned companies on Thursday, saying they had failed to comply with data access requests.

Prominent Austria-based privacy campaign group Noyb (None of Your Business) already filed complaints against the three and another three Chinese-owned companies in January, accusing them of "unlawfully" sending Europeans' personal data to China.

While Shein, Temu and Xiaomi provided the complainants with additional information, TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat "continued to violate" the EU's landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Noyb said.

Noyb said it filed the fresh complaints against TikTok with data protection authorities in Greece, against AliExpress in Belgium and against WeChat in the Netherlands to order them to fulfil the access requests and fine them.

"All three tech companies have failed to comply with access requests... This makes it impossible for European users to exercise their fundamental right to privacy, to find out how their personal data is being processed," Noyb said.

TikTok only provided part of the complainant's data "in an unstructured form that was impossible to understand", Noyb said.

TikTok did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Last week, Beijing denied asking firms to "illegally" collect and store users' personal information after an investigation was opened into its European operations.

TikTok was fined 530 million euros ($610 million) in May by Ireland's Data Protection Commission over sending personal data to China, although the Chinese social media giant had insisted this data was only accessed remotely.

Ireland's DPC is the lead regulator in the EU for TikTok as the company has its European headquarters in the country.

The social media giant has been in the crosshairs of Western governments for years over fears that personal data could be used by China for espionage or propaganda purposes.

Noyb has launched several legal cases against US technology giants such as Meta and Google, often prompting action from regulatory authorities over violations of the GDPR.

"Chinese apps are even worse than US providers," Noyb said on Thursday.

Noyb began working in 2018 with the advent of the GDPR.