TikTok surrenders to the Privacy Guarantor: all profiles disconnected on February 9th

The most famous Chinese social network among children and adolescents, TikTok, it bends to the will of the cittàn Privacy Guarantor. But it doesn't change its business model. This is the summary of what TikTok is about to do to respond to the recent provision against it issued by the cittàn Privacy Guarantor.

The Authority for the protection of personal data, in fact, after the case of the girl from Palermo who died during a TikTok challenge, on January 22, had imposed on the Chinese social network the blocking of data processing of cittàn users for whom the app was unable to verify the age with certainty. There response from TikTok arrived within the required time (the Guarantor had given it until February 15), but it is only the beginning of a path that must be much more complex and effective: the cittàn Authority itself, in fact, specifies that "it will monitor effective effectiveness of the measures that will be adopted ".

What will TikTok do on February 9th

TikTok has decided to respond to the Guarantor's requests with the freezing of the app on February 9th: that day all cittàn profiles will have to log in again in the app e declare your age again.

If the user declares to be under the age of 13, his account will be automatically removed from the platform. At first, therefore, TikTok will do nothing but repeat what he has already done when activating each new account: ask the age of the user and trust what he says.

What will TikTok do in the future

Clearly this measure, like did not prove effective in the past, it will not even be from 9 February: anyone can to lie and claim to be over 13, even if she is younger. The Guarantor knows this very well and, in fact, asks TikTok to do much more.

TitkTok added a button for the app on January 25th report to the platform users who seem to be under 13 and has committed to double the number of cittàn moderators to better intercept, and sooner, any content that is dangerous for minors.

The further hypothesis being studied is to use theartificial intelligence to study user behaviors and try to understand at least approximately the age range. It's not impossible: just use the same ones profiling algorithms already used by TikTok to show users personalized advertising.

However, this second phase will no longer be managed by the cittàn Privacy Guarantor but by the Irish one, given that TikTok has its registered office in Ireland (where it pays very few taxes). Our Authority explains: "Since the identification of such solutions requires a balance between the need for accurate verifications and the right to data protection of minors, the company has undertaken to initiate with the Privacy Authority of Ireland - Country in the which the platform has set its main establishment - a discussion on the use of artificial intelligence for age verification purposes “.

TikTok surrenders to the Privacy Guarantor: all profiles disconnected on February 9th