TikTok to cough up $92m to settle data privacy sueballs over harvesting too much data

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has offered to pay less than $100m to settle multiple privacy class-action lawsuits in the US. Last year, the China-based biz was hit with 21 sueballs filed mostly on behalf of children who used its trendy vid-sharing app, which is wildly popular among teens. It was alleged TikTok uses …

[ecofeco]

And the users get... what?

Will the users get fuckall as usual?

[RM Myers]

Re: And the users get... what?

Why would the users get anything? This is the modern variation on Robin Hood - take from the rich, and give to the rich lawyers. The users will likely get a check small enough that most never cash it.

[sgp]

Re: And the users get... what?

A years worth of TikTok Premium for free! Just fill in this form with all your private data and it's yours!

[Chris G]

Big enough but small enough

The offer is big enough to sound like a lot of money but small enough in terms of turnover to make little difference to the company.

Basically, it's insulting to the lusers.

The Trump ploy of bleating about children's data may go to the Communist party seems to me to be less of a bad thing than the same data going to Feacebook or Google. What exactly is the CCP going to do with such data?

Blackmail those same children years later when they are adults?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this a real $92M fine?

Is this $92M a real amount, or more like the Equifax $575M one which turned out to be $31M?

https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/31/ftc_equifax_settlement/

[hoola]

Yes Again

So data is harvested, someone finds out and a fine is issued. At some point I expect a class action will appear.

All these completely miss the point that the data has been collected and probably used, sold on amalgamated or whatever.

Maybe if the penalty for these things was complete deletion of the offending company's databases then they just might start taking this seriously. It is just too easy in this digital age to collect data and keep it, then add the covert collection of data through all the undercover cookies, links 1 pixel images that these companies use to conceal what they are doing and where do you go. There is simply no regulation to protect the user, yet alone the user that does not have any legitimate interaction with said company.

For too long regulators have sat back and let this situation develop because it was difficult to come up with a solution, mostly because the offenders are in different jurisdictions and are so big they can effectively ignore everyone.

We are at a point where the regulation is just like trying to plug a volcano with Bluetack. All these fines are derisory and completely meaningless, it is jut a headline that the average person thinks is good.