The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country’s telecommunications watchdog charged the TikTok company 186 million won – around $155,000 for failing to protect users’ private data.

The fine is equivalent to 3% of the company’s annual sales in South Korea, an amount designated for such violations under local privacy laws. The investigation was began last year in October.

TikTok fined by a South Korea regulator over children data privacy

TikTok collected the data of children under the age of 14 without consent from their legal guardians and TikTok has failed to notify users of the transfer of personal data overseas.

Korea Communications Commission

A minimum of 6,007 pieces of child data was collected from 31 May 2017 to 6 December 2019.

According to the investigation, TikTok currently uses four cloud companies to store its data Alibaba Cloud, Fastly, Edgecast, and Firebase. South Korean user data is stored on servers run by Alibaba Cloud, which are based in the US and Singapore.

In a statement to the regulator, TikTok said it outsourced data storage to third parties only when needed but that it regretted not properly informing users of this. The company added that it would improve the way it handles user data going forward.

The fine in South Korea is the latest blow to the Chinese company, which has faced allegations of collecting user data without consent.

Source: ZDNet