Latest news with #AliExpress
L'Orient-Le Jour
6 days ago
- Business
- L'Orient-Le Jour
TikTok hit by fresh complaint over data access
Online privacy campaigners filed fresh complaints against social media giant TikTok and two other Chinese-owned companies on Thursday, saying they had failed to comply with data access requests. Prominent Austria-based privacy campaign group Noyb (None of Your Business) already filed complaints against the three and another three Chinese-owned companies in January, accusing them of "unlawfully" sending Europeans' personal data to China. While Shein, Temu and Xiaomi provided the complainants with additional information, TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat "continued to violate" the EU's landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Noyb said. Noyb said it filed the fresh complaints against TikTok with data protection authorities in Greece, against AliExpress in Belgium and against WeChat in the Netherlands to order them to fulfil the access requests and fine them. "All three tech companies have failed to comply with access requests [...] This makes it impossible for European users to exercise their fundamental right to privacy, to find out how their personal data is being processed," Noyb said. TikTok only provided part of the complainant's data "in an unstructured form that was impossible to understand", Noyb said. TikTok did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. Last week, Beijing denied asking firms to "illegally" collect and store users' personal information after an investigation was opened into its European operations. TikTok was fined 530 million euros ($610 million) in May by Ireland's Data Protection Commission over sending personal data to China, although the Chinese social media giant had insisted this data was only accessed remotely. Ireland's DPC is the lead regulator in the EU for TikTok as the company has its European headquarters in the country. The social media giant has been in the crosshairs of Western governments for years over fears that personal data could be used by China for espionage or propaganda purposes. Noyb has launched several legal cases against US technology giants such as Meta and Google, often prompting action from regulatory authorities over violations of the GDPR. Noyb began working in 2018 with the advent of the GDPR.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Privacy group files complaint against AliExpress, TikTok and WeChat
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Austrian advocacy group noyb filed data privacy complaints against China's AliExpress, TikTok and WeChat on Thursday, saying they failed to comply with European Union laws on providing users with a full copy of their most tech companies have a tool to fulfil requests for downloading user information, some Chinese companies have made it difficult to access the information, noyb said."TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat love collecting as much data about you as possible but vehemently refuse to give you full access as required by EU law," said Kleanthi Sardeli, data protection lawyer at noyb.A spokesperson for Tencent, owner of WeChat, said the company complies with regulations in the markets it operates and is committed to protecting user privacy and data and AliExpress did not respond to requests for is known for filing complaints against American companies such as Apple, Alphabet and Meta , leading to several investigations and billions of dollars in January noyb filed complaints against six Chinese companies and sought to suspend data transfers to China and called for fines that can reach up to 4% of a company's global revenue.
Observer
6 days ago
- Business
- Observer
TikTok hit by fresh complaint over data access
Online privacy campaigners filed fresh complaints against social media giant TikTok and two other Chinese-owned companies on Thursday, saying they had failed to comply with data access requests. Prominent Austria-based privacy campaign group Noyb (None of Your Business) already filed complaints against the three and another three Chinese-owned companies in January, accusing them of "unlawfully" sending Europeans' personal data to China. While Shein, Temu and Xiaomi provided the complainants with additional information, TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat "continued to violate" the EU's landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Noyb said. Noyb said it filed the fresh complaints against TikTok with data protection authorities in Greece, against AliExpress in Belgium and against WeChat in the Netherlands to order them to fulfil the access requests and fine them. "All three tech companies have failed to comply with access requests... This makes it impossible for European users to exercise their fundamental right to privacy, to find out how their personal data is being processed," Noyb said. TikTok only provided part of the complainant's data "in an unstructured form that was impossible to understand", Noyb said. TikTok did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. Last week, Beijing denied asking firms to "illegally" collect and store users' personal information after an investigation was opened into its European operations. TikTok was fined 530 million euros ($610 million) in May by Ireland's Data Protection Commission over sending personal data to China, although the Chinese social media giant had insisted this data was only accessed remotely. Ireland's DPC is the lead regulator in the EU for TikTok as the company has its European headquarters in the country. The social media giant has been in the crosshairs of Western governments for years over fears that personal data could be used by China for espionage or propaganda purposes. Noyb has launched several legal cases against US technology giants such as Meta and Google, often prompting action from regulatory authorities over violations of the GDPR. "Chinese apps are even worse than US providers," Noyb said on Thursday. Noyb began working in 2018 with the advent of the GDPR.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Privacy group files complaint against AliExpress, TikTok, WeChat
Austrian advocacy group noyb on Thursday filed data privacy complaints against China's AliExpress, TikTok and WeChat, saying they failed to comply with European Union laws on providing users a full copy of their data. While most tech companies have a tool that allows them to fulfil requests for downloading user information, some Chinese companies have made it difficult to access the information, noyb said. "TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat love collecting as much data about you as possible - but vehemently refuse to give you full access as required by EU law," said Kleanthi Sardeli, data protection lawyer at noyb. Noyb is known for filing complaints against American companies such as Apple, Alphabet, and Meta, leading to several investigations and billions of dollars in fines. In January, noyb filed complaints against six Chinese companies and sought to suspend data transfers to China and called for fines that can reach up to 4% of a firm's global revenue.
Euractiv
6 days ago
- Business
- Euractiv
Privacy NGO Noyb targets three Chinese apps with data access complaints
Noyb, the not-for-profit privacy rights organisation that's had a string of major successes against against US Big Tech's privacy-hostile practice in recent years, has filed a trio of data protection complaints against three different Chinese apps. The three General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) complaints were filed on 17 July against Chinese-owned video-based social media TikTok, ecommerce marketplace AliExpress and messaging app WeChat, accusing them of failing to fulfil data access requests. The GDPR provides Europeans with a suite of personal data rights, including the right to request a copy of data held about them. However Noyb found that TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat either failed to respond entirely to such a request or sent partial or inaccessible information. "Chinese apps are even worse than US providers," Noyb wrote in a press release about the action, criticising the companies for failing to implement automated tools that would allow European users to download their personal data directly. According to Noyb, TikTok responded incompletely to a data access request, AliExpress sent a broken file, and WeChat ignored the request entirely. The complaints against TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat have been filed in Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands respectively. Back in 2019, the privacy rights NGO filed similar data access complaints against eight European and US tech firms – some of which resulted in enforcement action including fines. On paper, a GDPR fine can reach up to 4% of a company's global revenue, potentially amounting to billions in the case of a company such as TikTok. However a data access fine for Netflix, following Noyb's earlier action, only landed the streamer with a €4.75 million fine in 2024. TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat were contacted for comment on the complaints but had not responded at the time of publication. (nl)
