The social media app, TikTok, could face a £27 million fine for breaching UK data protection law involving children's privacy for more than two years, the Information Commissioner’s Office has said.

The law was breached from two years to July 2020.

The watchdog has issued TikTok Inc and TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited with a “notice of intent” – a legal document that precedes a potential fine.

The ICO investigation discovered the company may have processed the data of children under 13 without appropriate parental consent. 

TikTok data protection breach

It may also have failed to provide proper information to its users in a concise, transparent and easily understood way and processed special category data, without legal grounds to do so.

News Shopper: TikTok could face a £27 million fine after the Information Commissioner’s Office said it had found the company may have breached UK data protection law by failing to protect children’s privacy when using the platform (PA)TikTok could face a £27 million fine after the Information Commissioner’s Office said it had found the company may have breached UK data protection law by failing to protect children’s privacy when using the platform (PA) (Image: PA)

The ICO said its findings are provisional, no conclusion should be drawn that there had been a breach of data protection law or a fine would be imposed and that it would consider any representations by TikTok before reaching a final conclusion.

Information Commissioner John Edwards said: “We all want children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections.

“Companies providing digital services have a legal duty to put those protections in place but our provisional view is that TikTok fell short of meeting that requirement.

“I’ve been clear that our work to better-protect children online involves working with organisations but will also involve enforcement action where necessary.

“In addition to this, we are currently looking into how over 50 different online services are conforming with the children’s code and have six ongoing investigations looking into companies providing digital services who haven’t, in our initial view, taken their responsibilities around child safety seriously enough.”