TikTok Suit Update – TikTok To Pay $92 Million To Settle Class-Action Suit: According to court documents, a proposed $92 million settlement is pending in the TikTok, Inc., Consumer Privacy Litigation.
A lawsuit that alleges the company “violated federal and state law by collecting and using” personal data “in connection with their use of the TikTok – Make Your Day video-sharing application”
The proposed settlement, described as one of the “largest privacy-related payouts in history,” includes 89 million US users, some as young as six years old.
TikTok took personal information from people from the accounts, and without their consent, including biometric data such as their ethnicity, gender, and age.
The reality of TikTok class-action lawsuit
That TikTok notification about a settlement payment isn’t a scam. … The settlement is real. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, agreed in February to pay $92 million as part of a class-action payout to settle allegations that it harvested personal data from users without their consent.
Everything You Need to Know About TikTok Lawsuit
TikTok has agreed to pay $92 million to settle dozens of lawsuits alleging that the popular video-sharing app harvested personal data from users.
This includes information using facial recognition technology, without consent and shared the data with third-parties, some of which were based in China.
The proposed settlement, which lawyers in the case have called among the largest privacy-related payouts in history, applies to 89 million TikTok users in the U.S. whose personal data was allegedly tracked and sold to advertisers in violation of state and federal law.
“First, it provides compensation for TikTok users, but equally as important, it ensures TikTok will respect its users’ privacy going forward,” Katrina Carroll, one of the lawyers for TikTok users, said. “Social media seems so innocuous, but troubling data collection, storage, and disclosure can happen behind the scenes.”
The settlement is the result of 21 federal lawsuits filed mostly on behalf of minors — some as young as 6 years old — that claimed the company engaged in the “theft of private and personally identifiable TikTok user data.”
A TikTok spokesperson said while the company disagrees with the assertions in the lawsuit, the company decided to settle the case was in its best interest.
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“Rather than go through lengthy litigation, we’d like to focus our efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community,” the spokesperson said.
The legal battle has raged for more than a year. The suits were merged into one multi-district action in the Northern District of Illinois that cited violations of privacy laws in Illinois and California.
The laws require technology companies to receive written consent before collecting data about a person’s identity. The suit also claimed TikTok broke federal laws, including privacy and computer fraud and abuse statutes.
TikTok Lawyer Reactions
According to lawyers representing TikTok users, the app “clandestinely vacuumed up” vast quantities of private and personally identifiable data that could be used to identify and surveil users without permission.
Even information from draft videos that were never shared publicly on the app was mined by TikTok for data, the lawyers for the users alleged.
As millions in the U.S. turned to the app for videos of dance challenges, cooking tips, and silly skits, TikTok was allegedly sending their information to servers in China, or in other countries where China-based employees could access the data.
Tiktok also shared information about users, without their consent, with Facebook, Google, and other companies, the suit claims.
How much will each person get from the TikTok lawsuit?
The settlement also covers attorney’s fees, which can go up to a third of the payment. NBC News reported that if every eligible person submits a claim, those in the nationwide class would receive up to $0.96, while those in the Illinois subclass would receive up to $5.75
