TikTok Agrees to Pay $400 Million Over Children’s Privacy Allegations

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations of violating digital child privacy laws, agreeing to pay $400 million. Under the terms of the settlement, the company will immediately pay $300 million, with the remaining $100 million allocated to vacate an older consent judgment related to Musical.ly, TikTok’s predecessor app. The DOJ accused TikTok of illegally collecting and retaining children’s data without parental consent, as well as allowing them to create accounts designed for users aged 13 and older. The settlement was called one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a COPPA-related case. ByteDance noted that TikTok has undergone significant changes in ownership, management, and privacy practices following the sale of its U.S. operations to American and global investors last year. Since 2019, ByteDance has agreed to pay over $500 million in U.S. settlements, including a $92 million deal in 2022 over claims of collecting and profiting from private user data, including facial and geolocation information. The app was barred from collecting biometric and GPS data unless explicitly disclosed in its privacy policy. Reports also revealed ByteDance employees improperly used IP addresses and user data to spy on journalists, and the company mishandled data from American companies and influencers, whose sensitive financial information was stored in China.