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Brazil fines ByteDance $30 million over children’s data on TikTok
The ANPD said ByteDance must erase records for users aged 13 to 18 without regular parental authorization within 60 working days, and failure can trigger daily fines above $26,000.
Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority, the ANPD, fined ByteDance US$30 million for five breaches of Brazil’s data protection law tied to how children’s data was handled on TikTok, according to SCMP Economy. The regulator called the penalty its largest since the ANPD was created in 2020.
The ANPD gave ByteDance 10 working days to appeal. It also ordered the company to erase records of TikTok users aged 13 to 18 where parental authorization is not regularised within 60 working days.
ByteDance was told to instruct partners it passed those records to to erase them as well, and to report back with system logs signed off by its data protection officer. SCMP Economy reported that failing to comply could result in daily fines of more than US$26,000.
SCMP Economy said the ANPD’s Technical Note 50 described a test showing that users downloading TikTok in Brazil reached a personalised feed immediately without declaring an age or reading terms of service. The note also referenced a 2023 European Data Protection Board ruling that access in the European Union was restricted to registered users, and it said a logged-out feed was barred in the United States and Europe.