ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, has agreed to pay USD 92 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it illegally collected the user data of some of its US users, Reuters reported, citing court filings at the US District Court in Illinois. The agreement was reached after over a year of litigation and represented users as young as 8 years old.
“While we disagree with the assertions, rather than go through lengthy litigation, we’d like to focus our efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community,” TikTok said Thursday. The settlement still requires court approval.
The lawsuits claimed the TikTok app “infiltrates its users’ devices and extracts a broad array of private data including biometric data and content that defendants use to track and profile TikTok users for the purpose of, among other things, ad targeting and profit.”
Separately, the Federal Trade Commission and US Justice Department are looking into allegations that TikTok failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy.
