Social networks, 13.01.2023, 12:00 PM
The French regulatory agency for data protection (CNIL) fined TikTok 5 million euros for its policy of cookies that are imposed on users without due explanation.
The app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, was subject to CNIL surveillance from 2020 to 2022. The CNIL found that its cookie rejection mechanism is complex in such a way that it practically persuades users to accept all cookies.
Cookies that allow a website or application to track user data often serve a useful function, but in the wrong hands could theoretically violate privacy because they essentially track people’s online activities.
The CNIL concluded that TikTok’s cookie policy was against the French Data Protection Act because it “violated the freedom of consent of internet users”.
The CNIL found that TikTok provided an easy way to accept cookies, but not an “equivalent solution” that would allow an internet user to refuse cookies in an easy way. Instead, users needed several clicks to reject all cookies and only one click to accept them.
