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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/23\/tiktok-helen-dixon-libe-committee\/<\/a><\/br> MEPs in the European Parliament took the opportunity of a rare in-person appearance by Ireland\u2019s data protection commissioner, Helen Dixon, to criticize the bloc\u2019s lead privacy regulator for most of Big Tech over how long it\u2019s taking to investigate the video-sharing social media platform TikTok.<\/p>\n This concern is the latest expression of wider worries about enforcement<\/a> of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) not keeping pace with usage of major digital platforms.<\/p>\n The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) opened two inquiries into aspects of TikTok\u2019s business back in September 2021<\/a>: One focused on its handling of children\u2019s data; and another looking at data transfers to China, where the platform\u2019s parent company is based. Neither has yet concluded. Although the kids\u2019 data inquiry looks relatively advanced along the GDPR enforcement rail at this stage \u2014 with Ireland having submitted it to other EU regulators for review in September last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Per Dixon, a final decision on the TikTok kids\u2019 data case should arrive later this year.<\/p>\n The UK\u2019s data protection watchdog \u2014 which now operates outside the EU \u2014 has taken some enforcement action in this area already, putting out a provisional finding that TikTok misused children\u2019s data last fall<\/a>. The ICO went on to issue its final decision on the investigation last month<\/a>, when it levied a fine of around $15.7M. (Albeit, it\u2019s worth noting it shrunk the size of the fine imposed and narrowed the scope of the final decision, dropping a provisional finding that TikTok had unlawfully used special category data \u2014 blaming resource limitations for downgrading the scope of its investigation.)<\/p>\n In remarks to the European Parliament\u2019s civil liberties committee (LIBE) today, which had invited Ireland\u2019s data protection commissioner to talk about TikTok specifically, Dixon signalled an expectation that a decision on the TikTok children\u2019s data probe would be coming this year, making a reference to the company as she told MEPs: \u201c2023 is going to be an even bigger year for GDPR enforcement on foot of DPC large scale investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n Other large scale cases she suggested will result in decisions being handed down this year include a very long-running probe of (TechCrunch\u2019s parent company) Yahoo (n\u00e9e Oath)<\/a>, which was opened by the DPC back in August 2019 \u2014 and which she noted is also currently at the Article 60 stage.<\/p>\n She added that there are \u201cmany further large scale inquiries travelling closely behind\u201d without offering any detail on which cases she was referring to.<\/p>\n Plenty of Big Tech investigations remain undecided by Ireland \u2014 not least major probes into Google\u2019s adtech (opened May 2019<\/a>) and location tracking (February 2020<\/a>), to name two. (The former of which has led to the DPC being sued for inaction<\/a>.) Neither case merited a name-check by Dixon today so presumably \u2014 and luckily for Google \u2014 aren\u2019t on the slate for completion this year.<\/p>\n Ireland holds an outsized enforcement role for the GDPR on Big Tech owing to how many multinational tech firms choose to locate their regional headquarters in the country (which also offers a corporate tax rate that undercuts those applied by many other EU Member States). Hence why parliamentarians were so keen to hear from Dixon and get her respond to concerns that enforcement of the regulation isn\u2019t holding platform giants to account in any kind of effective timeframe.<\/p>\n One thing was clear from today\u2019s performance: Ireland\u2019s data protection commissioner did not come to appease her critics. Instead Dixon directed a large chunk of the time allocated to her for opening remarks to mount a robust defence of the DPC\u2019s \u201cbusy GDPR enforcement\u201d, as she couched it \u2014 rejecting attacks on its enforcement record by claiming, contrary to years of critical analysis (by rights groups such as noyb, BEUC and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties), that its legal analysis and infringement findings are \u201cgenerally accepted in all cases\u201d by fellow regulators who review its draft decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cDifferences between the DPC and its fellow supervisory authorities [are] largely confined to marginal issues around the fringes,\u201d she also argued \u2014 taking another swipe at what she couched as an \u201cnarrative promulgated by some commentators that in many of the cross border cases in which high value fines were levied the DPC was forced to take tougher enforcement action by its fellow supervisory authorities across the EU\u201d that she claimed is \u201cinaccurate\u201d.<\/p>\n Back on the day\u2019s topic of TikTok, she gave MEPs a status update on the data transfers decision \u2014 revealing that \u201ca preliminary draft of the draft decision\u201d is now with the company to make its \u201cfinal submissions\u201d. The GDPR\u2019s procedural track means Ireland must submit its draft decision to other concerned data protection authorities for review (and the chance to raise objections). So there could still be considerable mileage before a final decision lands in this inquiry.<\/p>\n Dixon did not indicate how long it would take the TikTok data transfers inquiry to progress to the next step (aka Article 60), which fires up a cooperation mechanism baked into the GDPR that can itself add many more months to investigation timelines. But it\u2019s worth noting the DPC is trailing a little behind its own recent expectation for the draft decision timeline \u2014 back in November<\/a>, it told TechCrunch it expected to send a draft decision to Article 60 in the first quarter of 2023.<\/p>\n Exports of European users\u2019 data to so-called third countries (outside the bloc), which lack a high level data adequacy agreement with the EU, have been under increased scrutiny since a landmark ruling by the Court of Justice back in July 2020. At that time, as well as striking down a flagship EU-US data transfer deal, EU judges made it clear data protection authorities must scrutinize use of another mechanism, called Standard Contractual Clauses, for transfers to third countries on a case-by-case basis \u2014 meaning no such data export could be assumed as safe.<\/p>\n And, just yesterday<\/a>, a major GDPR data transfer decision did finally emerge out of Ireland \u2014 possibly offering a taster of the sort of enforcement that could be coming down the pipe for TikTok\u2019s data transfers in the EU \u2014 with Facebook being found to have infringed requirements that Europeans\u2019 information be protected to the same standard as under EU law when it\u2019s taken to the US.<\/p>\n Facebook\u2019s parent company, Meta, was ordered to suspend unlawful data flows within six months and also issued with a record penalty of \u20ac1.2 billion for systematic breaches of the rulebook. Meta, meanwhile, has said it will appeal the decision and seek a stay on the implementation of the suspension order.<\/p>\n It\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess when such a decision might land for TikTok\u2019s data transfers to China \u2014 a location where digital surveillance concerns are certainly no less alive than they are for the US \u2014 but MEP Moritz K\u00f6rner, of the Free Democratic Party, was one of several LIBE committee MEPs taking issue with the length of time it\u2019s taking for the GDPR to be enforced against another data-mining, data transferring adtech giant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to hear today that you are in the final stage of your [TikTok] investigation but more than four years have gone by!\u201d he emphasized in questions to the Irish commissioner. \u201cAnd this is an app which millions of our citizens are using \u2014 including children and young people\u2026 So my question would be does data protection in Europe move quickly enough and what has happened over the past four years?\u201d<\/p>\n Pirate party MEP, Patrick Breyer, had even more pointed remarks for Dixon. He kicked off by calling out her refusal to meet the committee last year \u2014 when she had reportedly<\/a> objected to being asked to appear at a session alongside privacy campaigner, Max Schrems, who had a live legal action open against the DPC related to its enforcement procedures of Meta\u2019s data transfers \u2014 which he suggested would have been the appropriate forum for her defence of the DPC\u2019s enforcement record, not a hearing on TikTok specifically. He then went on to hit out at the narrow scoping of the DPC\u2019s investigations into TikTok\u2019s operations \u2014 raising broader questions than the regulator is apparently inquiring into \u2014 such as over the legality of TikTok\u2019s tracking and profiling of users.<\/p>\n \u201cHearing that what you are investigating in relation to TikTok is only children\u2019s data and data transfers to China \u2014 this addresses only a fraction of what is being criticised and debated about the service and this app,\u201d he argued. \u201cFor one thing using TikTok comes with pervasive first party and third party tracking of our every action or every click based on forced consent, which is not necessary for using the service and for providing it. This pervasive tracking has been found to be both a risk to our privacy but also to national security in the case of certain officials. And do you consider this content freely given and valid?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSecondly, the app reportedly uses excessive permissions and device information collection, including hourly checking of our location, device mapping, external storage access, access to our contacts, third party apps data collection, none of which is necessary for the app to function. Will you act to protect us from these violations of our privacy?\u201d Breyer continued. \u201cIf you remain as inactive as this, as you have been for years, you know this will continue to call into question your competence for [overseeing] the social media companies in Ireland and it will result in more outright bans [by governments on services like TikTok] which is not in the interest of industry either. So I call on you to expand your investigations and to speed them up and cover all these issues of pervasive tracking and excessive surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTikTok\u2019s lead privacy regulator in Europe takes heat from MEPs<\/br>
\n2023-05-23 21:45:51<\/br><\/p>\n