TikTok ad policy is ‘clear abuse’ of EU law: activists

PARIS: Rights activists on Tuesday accused social media giant TikTok of breaching EU laws by co-opting users into sharing their data for targeted advertising.

TikTok said it would change its policy next week to allow data to be gathered from over-18s in Europe whether or not they had consented, claiming the move was allowed under Europe’s data protection law (GDPR). But digital rights group Access Now wrote to the company asking for clarity on the legal basis, calling it a "clear abuse" of several European laws including GDPR.

Masse said other social media platforms also had problems with their consent mechanisms but TikTok was "taking a step further" by "effectively suggesting that we should not have a say in deciding how our information is used".