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An Illinois resident has filed a class action lawsuit alleging the popular social media platform TikTok violates users’ privacy by collecting biometric data without their written consent.
In the class action lawsuit brought by plaintiff M.E., TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Inc., administers of TikTok in the United States, are accused of violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by never obtaining users’ informed, written consent before collecting biometric data.
Further, the TikTok lawsuit claims the app does not have a publicly available written policy that provides for the permanent destruction of biometric information when it’s no longer needed.
Both defendants are subsidiaries of Chinese conglomerate ByteDance Ltd. ByteDance launched TikTok in China in 2016 (where it is known as Douyin), and began expanding internationally in 2017.
The company entered the U.S. market in late 2017 when it purchased musical.ly and merged musical.ly’s video-sharing service with TikTok.
The TikTok lawsuit claims ByteDance did not seek clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States before the acquisition.
TikTok has gained popularity in recent years, with nearly a billion users worldwide. The app is particularly popular among teenagers and young adults.
As of 2019, about 60 percent of active users in the U.S. were ages 16 to 24. Content creators can use TikTok filters to add effects to their videos, including filters that capture facial geometry to make it look like the user has the face of a dog or a unicorn’s head, for example.
However, the use of biometric information also poses a security risk.
The TikTok lawsuit alleges the data captured by the app with TikTok filters is similar to a fingerprint in that each person’s facial geometry is unique and can be used as an identifier.
Such data can be used in identity theft, to identify faces online or in video surveillance or “otherwise compromise personal privacy.”
The musical.ly app also reportedly used face filters and collected biometric information without obtaining users’ informed written consent.
TikTok’s U.S. privacy policy states only that TikTok may share users’ information with a parent, subsidiary or other affiliate of TikTok’s corporate group. It does not disclose that the defendants collect or share users’ biometric information and does not obtain users’ informed written consent, according to the TikTok lawsuit.
The TikTok filters class action lawsuit states that the U.S. Department of Defense recently deemed TikTok a security threat because of the app’s ability to transmit biometric data to ByteDance Ltd., which maintains close ties with the Chinese government.
In the TikTok lawsuit, M.E., a minor, and her guardian state they were at no point notified that the defendants were collecting or storing their biometric information, and that they were never informed in writing of the specific purpose and length of term for which M.E.’s biometric information was being collected, stored and used.
M.E.’s guardian says she never executed a written release that would permit TikTok or ByteDance to collect M.E.’s biometric information. Neither M.E. nor her guardian were ever notified the defendants were sharing her biometric data among themselves, with ByteDance Ltd., or with any other third party, the complaint says.
It is important to M.E. and her guardian that her biometric data be kept secure and permanently destroyed promptly after the initial purpose for collecting it is complete or “within three years of Plaintiff’s last interaction with the entity that collected the data, as required by BIPA,” the TikTok lawsuit states.
In a similar case filed in Illinois, another minor claims TikTok has collected her biometric data and shared it with third-parties. She also claims her face has appeared in other users’ uploaded videos.
M.E.’s class action lawsuit seeks an award of statutory or actual damages, whichever is greater, for each of TikTok’s and ByteDance Inc.’s violations of the BIPA; injunctive relief so as to stop the defendants from violating the BIPA in the future and to protect M.E. and the proposed Class from consequences of the defendants’ past violations; and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. M.E. also seeks a jury trial.
The plaintiff is represented by Eric H. Gibbs, David M. Berger and Jeffrey Kosbie of Gibbs Law Group LLP.
The TikTok Filters Class Action Lawsuit is M.E., et al. v. TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Inc., Case No. 5:20-cv-3555, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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