There is also our own Privacy Guarantor among the authorities who demand clarifications regarding the activity of TikTok, in particular the methods of management and processing of data concerning users, in most cases young and very young people. Over the weekend, the request for information addressed to ByteDance, the company that controls the social network, was made official, providing the following reasoning.

The Privacy Guarantor asked TikTok for information regarding the statements of a former executive of the ByteDance company, reported by the press, relating to an alleged access to users’ personal data by the Chinese Communist Party.

TikTok and user data to China: the Privacy Guarantor intervenes

Under the magnifying glass, therefore, the alleged illicit transmission of what was collected to China, more specifically to the Communist Party of Beijing, has ended. It’s not the first time we’ve talked about it. The first objective is to understand whether or not the practice also involved members of our country or of the European territory.

Considering that the news refers to an alleged illicit communication of personal data by TikTok to the Party itself, an activity firmly excluded by the company even on the occasion of recent institutional meetings on the subject, the Guarantor has invited the latter to provide its observations on what has been reported and on the possible involvement of TikTok Technology Ltd in the transmission of data of users, including Italian and European ones, to the Chinese government authorities.

The brief press release ends by emphasizing that the reply to the Authority must be received within 15 days of receipt of the request. At the moment it is not known what the consequences could be triggered by a possible delay in the response or by the possible detection of violations. We cannot exclude the possibility that the social network could face blockages and the company that controls it, the aforementioned ByteDance, sanctions.