The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Privacy: TikTok halts controversial advertising plans at the last minute

2022-07-12T14:26:57.920Z


The operators of TikTok actually wanted to make personalized advertising mandatory for adult users. But the company will probably not get away with that, data protectionists have now stopped the advance.


Enlarge image

TikTok logo at the London office: the end of a hasty campaign

Photo: TOLGA AKMEN / AFP

The operators of TikTok actually wanted to make consent to personalized advertising compulsory for all adult users in Europe from tomorrow, Wednesday.

But after the objection of several data protection authorities, the Chinese app provider has now stopped the plans for the time being.

As the magazine "Techcrunch" first reported, the Irish data protection authority, which is responsible for the European branch of the group, has apparently intervened.

The provider confirmed to SPIEGEL that he was now pausing the changeover.

But TikTok doesn't want to do without it entirely: "We believe that personalized advertising offers the best in-app experience for our community and aligns us with industry practices," explains a company spokeswoman.

They now want to talk to stakeholders about how the goal can be achieved.

A broad interpretation of the General Data Protection Regulation

The move by the Chinese social media provider caused outrage because it relied on a particularly far-reaching interpretation of the General Data Protection Regulation: Instead of relying on the consent of its users, TikTok summarily declared its own advertising financing to be a “legitimate interest «, which is why the users do not have to actively agree.

Anyone who nevertheless wanted to object to the use of personal data for advertising purposes was not given one or more buttons, but was asked to object to each individual data processing with a personal justification.

In doing so, TikTok went beyond “industry practices.”

While TikTok's competitors had found many ways to make it harder for users to opt out of personalized ads, most providers allowed opting out with multiple mouse clicks.

No one asked for personal reasons.

In addition, the data protection authorities had put increasing pressure on large platforms in the past year.

In April, for example, Google simplified its cookie dialog so that when using the search engine in Europe, you can completely object to the advertising evaluation of your own data.

However, the change only came after the French authorities had imposed fines of 100 million euros and enforced them in court.

Facebook also improved.

The reason for TikTok's change of course is obvious: Personalized advertising is paid significantly better than advertising that is played out in line with the transmitted content, for example.

With its young clientele, however, TikTok can only participate in the business to a limited extent, since the use of personal data by minors is not only restricted in Europe.

As soon as TikTok users celebrate their 18th birthday, the group wants to show them the new cookie banner in the future.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-07-12

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-06T19:02:41.894Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.