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The
lawsuit came a day after Britain's data watchdog said it had
fined TikTok 12.7 million pounds ($15.81 million) for breaching
data protection law, including by using the personal data of
children without parental consent.
Amid growing security concerns that China could use the
Beijing-based company, owned by ByteDance Ltd, to harvest users'
data, Australia, the United States, France and other Western
countries have also lately banned TikTok from government
devices.
"TikTok profits from children under the age of 13, taking
advantage of their particular vulnerability," the non-profit
group Ius Omnibus said in a statement, asking a Lisbon court to
"put an end to the unlawful conduct" and order the financial
compensation of those affected.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but
told Portuguese newspaper Publico in a statement that protecting
its users and their data was of "utmost importance".
Ius Omnibus claims TikTok ends up collecting and processing
children's personal data in breach of Portugal's constitution,
the European Union's general data protection regulation and the
unfair commercial practices law.
Despite TikTok's age limit, it "does not implement mechanisms to
prevent registration" by users aged below 13, the group said.
In a separate lawsuit, it claims users older than 13 are also
victims of "misleading business practices" and that certain
personal data is used without their full consent.
Ius Omnibus said the situation exposes the children to "dangers
to their moral, psychological and physical integrity and to
their safety and health, as well as to the intimacy of their
private and family life".
($1 = 0.8031 pounds)
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; editing by Andrei Khalip and
Richard Chang)
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