EU fined TikTok Rs 5066 crore, the app was sending data of European users to China

TikTok has been fined a record-breaking 530 million euros (around $600 million) for breaching the stringent data privacy regulations of the European Union (EU). This has been done following a four-year inquiry in which it was found that TikTok transferred personal information of users in Europe to China in contravention of the data privacy guidelines of the European Union (EU).

As TikTok has its European headquarters in Dublin, this investigation was conducted by the Data Protection Commission of Ireland. The Commission also noted that TikTok didn't clearly inform users about where they were sending their data and how it was being processed.

"TikTok could not prove that the data of European users accessed remotely by its employees based in China was being given the same protection as is given in the EU," said Graham Doyle, the commission's deputy commissioner.

TikTok has disagreed with the decision and said that it will appeal against it. The company said in a blog post that the investigation period ended in May 2023, while at the same time the company started a data localization project called 'Project Clover', under which three data centers are being built in Europe.

TikTok's European public policy chief Christine Gran said, "Under Project Clover, we have adopted the strictest data security measures in the industry and its operations are also independently monitored by European cybersecurity firm NCC Group."

TikTok has claimed that it has never received a request from the Chinese government to share the data of European users and has never done so. The investigation also found that TikTok's old privacy policy did not state that users' data was being sent to third countries such as China. The policy also did not clarify that employees based in China had access to data stored in Singapore and the US.

The Commission expressed concern that China's terrorism, cybersecurity and national intelligence laws differ from EU standards, raising questions about the security of users' data.

The DPC says TikTok provided false information during the investigation. The company had previously said that European users' data was not stored in China, but in April 2024 it admitted that in February it learned that some data was indeed stored in China.

Deputy Commissioner Doyle said, "This is a serious matter and we are considering further regulatory action."