Latest news with #Noyb
The Star
18-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
TikTok hit by fresh complaint over data access
An Irish regulator helping police European Union data privacy said July 10, 2025, that it had launched an investigation into TikTok over the transfer of European users' personal data to servers in China. — AFP VIENNA: Online privacy campaigners filed fresh complaints against social media giant TikTok and two other Chinese-owned companies on July 17, 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 €530mil (US$610mil) 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. – AFP
L'Orient-Le Jour
17-07-2025
- 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.
Observer
17-07-2025
- 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.
Euractiv
17-07-2025
- 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)
The Sun
17-07-2025
- Business
- The Sun
TikTok faces new EU data privacy complaints over access violations
VIENNA: Online privacy campaigners have lodged new complaints against TikTok and two other Chinese-owned companies for allegedly failing to comply with data access requests. Austria-based advocacy group Noyb (None of Your Business) previously filed complaints in January, accusing the firms of unlawfully transferring Europeans' personal data to China. While Shein, Temu, and Xiaomi provided additional information, TikTok, AliExpress, and WeChat reportedly continued violating the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Noyb stated, '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.' The group filed fresh complaints with data protection authorities in Greece (TikTok), Belgium (AliExpress), and the Netherlands (WeChat), demanding compliance and fines. According to Noyb, TikTok only supplied partial data 'in an unstructured form that was impossible to understand.' TikTok did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment. The platform was fined €530 million ($610 million) in May by Ireland's Data Protection Commission for transferring personal data to China, though TikTok maintains this data was only accessed remotely. Western governments have long scrutinized TikTok over concerns that China could exploit user data for espionage or propaganda. Noyb, known for targeting US tech giants like Meta and Google, remarked, 'Chinese apps are even worse than US providers.' The group has actively pursued GDPR enforcement since 2018. Last week, Beijing denied allegations of instructing firms to illegally collect user data amid an EU probe into its operations. - AFP
