• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

LapDogs: China-nexus hackers Hijack 1,000+ SOHO devices for espionage

 | 

Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw

 | 

OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors

 | 

APT42 impersonates cyber professionals to phish Israeli academics and journalists

 | 

Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

 | 

Cisco fixed critical ISE flaws allowing Root-level remote code execution

 | 

U.S. CISA adds AMI MegaRAC SPx, D-Link DIR-859 routers, and Fortinet FortiOS flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

CitrixBleed 2: The nightmare that echoes the 'CitrixBleed' flaw in Citrix NetScaler devices

 | 

Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

 | 

Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

 | 

Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

 | 

Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

 | 

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 

McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

 | 

American steel giant Nucor confirms data breach in May attack

 | 

The financial impact of Marks & Spencer and Co-op cyberattacks could reach £440M

 | 

Iran-Linked Threat Actors Cyber Fattah Leak Visitors and Athletes' Data from Saudi Games

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Laws and regulations
  • Mobile
  • Security
  • US sued TikTok and ByteDance for violating children’s privacy laws

US sued TikTok and ByteDance for violating children’s privacy laws

Pierluigi Paganini August 03, 2024

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, for extensive violations of children’s privacy laws.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against TikTok Inc., its parent company ByteDance Ltd., and their affiliates (together, TikTok) for extensive violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and its implementing regulations (COPPA) in connection with the popular TikTok app.

According to COPPA, website operators are forbidden from collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13 without parental consent and mandates deletion of such data upon parental request. In 2019, the government sued TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, for COPPA violations. Since then, TikTok and ByteDance have been under a court order to implement measures to comply with COPPA.

“According to the complaint, from 2019 to the present, TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. The defendants collected and retained a wide variety of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents.” reads the press release published by DoJ. “Even for accounts that were created in “Kids Mode” (a pared-back version of TikTok intended for children under 13), the defendants unlawfully collected and retained children’s email addresses and other types of personal information.”

DoJ also added that when parents requested the deletion of their children’s accounts and information, TikTok and ByteDance often failed to comply. The companies also had inadequate internal policies and processes for identifying and removing accounts created by children.

The social network giant exposed millions of children under 13 to extensive data collection, interactions with adult users, and adult content by violating COPPA. The complaint seeks civil penalties and injunctive relief.

“The Department is deeply concerned that TikTok has continued to collect and retain children’s personal information despite a court order barring such conduct,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children.”

TikTok disagrees with these allegations, it said that many of them relate to past events and practices that have been already addressed. It is also proud of its efforts to protect children.

Our statement on today's lawsuit by the Department of Justice:

"We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.

We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to…

— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) August 2, 2024

In September 2023, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined TikTok €345 million for violating children’s privacy. The Irish data regulators discovered that the popular video-sharing app allowed adults to send direct messages to certain teenagers who have no family connection with them.

The investigation conducted by the DPC revealed a severe flaw in TikTok’s “family pairing” feature that could be abused to link children’s accounts to “unverified” adults.

Children under 13 are exposed to serious risks due to the default account setting that allows anyone to view the content they publish.

“The decision further details that non-child users had the power to enable direct messages for child users above the age of 16, thereby making this feature less strict for the child user,” explained the officer of DPC Helen Dixon, as reported by the Irish Times. “This also meant that, for example, videos that were posted to child users’ accounts were public by default, comments were enabled publicly by default, the Duet and Stitch features were enabled by default.”

TikTok was also accused of lacking adequate transparency when dealing with the way it processes data of its young users.

The DPC also criticized the processes behind the TikTok registration and the publishing of videos, which according to the Irish authority were designed to drive the users toward selecting options that exposed their privacy to risks.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, ByteDance)


facebook linkedin twitter

bytedance COPPA hacking news information security news IT Information Security Pierluigi Paganini privacy Security Affairs Security News TikTok

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 28, 2025
LapDogs: China-nexus hackers Hijack 1,000+ SOHO devices for espionage
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 27, 2025
Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    LapDogs: China-nexus hackers Hijack 1,000+ SOHO devices for espionage

    Malware / June 28, 2025

    Taking over millions of developers exploiting an Open VSX Registry flaw

    Hacking / June 27, 2025

    OneClik APT campaign targets energy sector with stealthy backdoors

    Hacking / June 27, 2025

    APT42 impersonates cyber professionals to phish Israeli academics and journalists

    APT / June 27, 2025

    Kai West, aka IntelBroker, indicted for cyberattacks causing $25M in damages

    Cyber Crime / June 26, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT