TikTok faces claims for billions in UK child privacy lawsuit

A class action suit claims TikTok illegally harvested children’s data. TikTok plans to ‘vigorously defend the action’.

TikTok, the wildly popular video app, and its Chinese parent ByteDance could face a damages claim worth billions of pounds in London’s High Court over allegations they illegally harvested the private data of millions of European children. Anne Longfield, the former Children’s Commissioner for England and so-called “litigation friend”, or public face, of an anonymous 12-year-old girl leading the class action, said on Wednesday that affected children could receive thousands of pounds each if the claim is successful. Longfield alleged that every child that has used TikTok since May 25, 2018, may have had private personal information illegally collected by ByteDance through TikTok for the benefit of unknown third parties.