|
The
Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free
Childhood and others said TikTok had failed to take down all
videos made by children under the age of 13, as it agreed to do
under a consent agreement with the FTC announced in February
2019.
TikTok spokeswoman Hilary McQuaide said in response to the new
complaint that "we take privacy seriously and are committed to
helping ensure that TikTok continues to be a safe and
entertaining community for our users."
As part of the consent agreement, the FTC had said that TikTok,
then known as Musical.ly, had known that young children used the
app and had failed to get parental consent to collect their
names, email addresses and other personal information. It paid a
fine of $5.7 million.
But, the privacy advocates said, TikTok failed to delete
personal information about users age 12 and younger as it had
promised as part of the consent agreement.
"We found that TikTok currently has many regular account holders
who are under age 13, and many of them still have videos of
themselves that were uploaded as far back as 2016, years prior
to the consent decree," they said in their complaint.
TikTok's decision to create accounts for children age 12 and
under that have less functionality failed to meet requirements
of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act because the
company still collects information, which it shares with third
parties that want it for advertising. Also, children can easily
avoid using the kids' version of the app by being dishonest
about their age, the groups said.
In addition, TikTok fails to post on its homepage an
easy-to-find link to its privacy policy, the groups said.
"TikTok continues to be one of the most popular apps in the
world, and it is widely used by children and teens in the United
States, so it is especially important that the FTC promptly and
thoroughly investigate TikTok's practices and take effective
enforcement action," the groups said in their complaint.
Other groups signing on to the complaint include Berkeley Media
Studies Group, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America,
Consumer Reports and Electronic Privacy Information Center.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Additional reporting by Paresh Dave;
Editing by Leslie Adler and Gerry Doyle)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
