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Brazil Slaps TikTok Owner ByteDance With USD29.8M Fine Over Child Data
(MENAFN) Brazil's National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) hit ByteDance, the parent company behind TikTok, with a 153.7 million reais ($29.8 million) penalty Tuesday over how the platform handled the personal data of children and teenagers, according to the Official Gazette.
The penalty followed an administrative proceeding that turned up multiple breaches of Brazil's data privacy law, the General Data Protection Law (LGPD). Alongside the fine, regulators ordered the company to purge data it collected improperly and roll out a compliance plan aimed at tightening protections for young users on the platform.
Investigators zeroed in on two distinct ways users interact with TikTok, the ANPD said: a no-login "feed without registration" and a "feed with registration" tied to a full user profile. Across both pathways, the agency found the platform was processing data belonging to minors without a valid legal basis under the LGPD, and had failed to put safeguards in place to stop it.
As part of the required compliance overhaul, TikTok must now automatically lock accounts belonging to users under 16 into its most restrictive privacy settings — changeable only with a parent or guardian's sign-off. The company is also required to beef up parental oversight tools and tighten its content filtering, per the ANPD.
For users browsing without an account, TikTok will pull advertising entirely within Brazil, restrict viewable content to material suitable for all ages, and scale back how much personal data it gathers and processes from that group.
Regulators added that non-registered users will face a 12-hour access cap and lose access to several features altogether — including posting content, commenting, sending direct messages, following other accounts, and livestreaming.
According to the ANPD, the enforcement action secured commitments specifically designed to cut risk exposure for children and teens, among them a total ad ban and the shutdown of livestreaming and direct messaging for anyone using the platform without registering.
The agency's findings are laid out in Technical Note No. 50/2024/CGF/ANPD, compiled by the ANPD's Supervision Department (SFI-ANPD), which flagged practices in both access modes as inconsistent with Brazilian data protection law.
ByteDance retains the right to appeal the fine before the ANPD's Board of Directors, with a window of 10 business days from formal notification to do so.
The penalty followed an administrative proceeding that turned up multiple breaches of Brazil's data privacy law, the General Data Protection Law (LGPD). Alongside the fine, regulators ordered the company to purge data it collected improperly and roll out a compliance plan aimed at tightening protections for young users on the platform.
Investigators zeroed in on two distinct ways users interact with TikTok, the ANPD said: a no-login "feed without registration" and a "feed with registration" tied to a full user profile. Across both pathways, the agency found the platform was processing data belonging to minors without a valid legal basis under the LGPD, and had failed to put safeguards in place to stop it.
As part of the required compliance overhaul, TikTok must now automatically lock accounts belonging to users under 16 into its most restrictive privacy settings — changeable only with a parent or guardian's sign-off. The company is also required to beef up parental oversight tools and tighten its content filtering, per the ANPD.
For users browsing without an account, TikTok will pull advertising entirely within Brazil, restrict viewable content to material suitable for all ages, and scale back how much personal data it gathers and processes from that group.
Regulators added that non-registered users will face a 12-hour access cap and lose access to several features altogether — including posting content, commenting, sending direct messages, following other accounts, and livestreaming.
According to the ANPD, the enforcement action secured commitments specifically designed to cut risk exposure for children and teens, among them a total ad ban and the shutdown of livestreaming and direct messaging for anyone using the platform without registering.
The agency's findings are laid out in Technical Note No. 50/2024/CGF/ANPD, compiled by the ANPD's Supervision Department (SFI-ANPD), which flagged practices in both access modes as inconsistent with Brazilian data protection law.
ByteDance retains the right to appeal the fine before the ANPD's Board of Directors, with a window of 10 business days from formal notification to do so.
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