TikTok Class Action Says Kids’ Data Collected Without Permission

A TikTok class action filed in Illinois federal court claims that the popular video app collects data from children under the age of 13 without consent.

Plaintiffs Sherri LeShore of Illinois and Laura Lopez of California recently filed the TikTok class action on behalf of their children, claiming that the video social media app violates state laws by gathering data from young users.

TikTok started in 2014 under the name Musical.ly. Since then, the app has allegedly failed to protect children.

When the app started, users – including young children – were reportedly asked to provide personal information such as email addresses, phone numbers, and first and last names. TikTok users could then create a profile with a username, bio description, and profile picture. The app allegedly illegally collected this information and then, to make things worse, failed to protect it.

The TikTok class action claims that many kids included their ages in their bios. Even if their profiles were set to private, their usernames, profile pictures, and bios reportedly “remained public and searchable by other users,” which allegedly “allowed adults posing as children to send inappropriate messages to minor children” through direct message or video chats.

According to the TikTok class action, the app routinely failed to protect young users and instead took advantage of them by collecting and sharing their personal identifying information without parental consent.

“At all relevant times, defendants failed to deploy appropriate safeguards in their app that would prevent minor children from creating Musical.ly app accounts and thereby providing their personally identifying information, without first obtaining verifiable parental consent,” the TikTok class action claims.

The two mothers claim that the app’s actions violated numerous state laws including the Video Privacy Protection Act, the California Constitutional Right to Privacy, the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

The plaintiffs seek to represent consumers who used TikTok or its predecessor Musical.ly while under the age of 13 as well as the parents or legal guardians of these users. They also seek to represent two subclasses of the same consumers from California or Illinois.

Another recent TikTok class action lawsuit filed by plaintiff Misty Hong similarly claims that the company uses illegally collected data to generate profits. The data is reportedly transferred to servers in China where it can allegedly later be used to identify and track U.S. consumers.

“In short, TikTok’s lighthearted fun comes at a heavy cost,” Hong said her complaint. “Meanwhile, TikTok unjustly profits from its secret harvesting of private and personally-identifiable user data by, among other things, using such data to derive vast targeted-advertising revenues and profits.”

Did your child under the age of 13 use TikTok? Let us know what you think of these allegations in the comment section below.

Plaintiffs and the proposed Class are represented by Gary M. Kinger of Kozonis & Klinger Ltd. and Gary E. Mason of Whitfield Bryson & Mason LLP.

The TikTok Kid Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is T.K., through her mother Sherri LeShore, et al. v. ByteDance Technology Co. Ltd., et al., Case No. 1:19-cv-07915, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: On Dec. 5, 2019, a group of parents asked a federal judge to approve a $1.1 million settlement agreement that would end a proposed TikTok minor privacy class action lawsuit.

UPDATE 2: On Jan. 20, 2020, the TikTok minor privacy class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

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