TikTok could face a £27 million fine after an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that the company may have breached UK data protection law.

According to the ICO, an investigation into TikTok found that it failed to adequately protect children’s privacy when using the video-sharing platform.

The regulator says the company may have processed data belonging to children under the age of 13 without parental consent and processed special category data “without the legal grounds to do so”.

Special category data includes information pertaining to ethnic and racial origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, Trade union membership, genetic and biometric data or health data.

Additionally, the ICO says its investigation found that TikTok may have failed to provide users with “proper information” on data privacy policies in a “concise, transparent and easily understood way”.

The ICO has since issued TikTok Inc and TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited with a ‘notice of intent’ – a legal document which often precedes a potential fine.

The notice outlines ICO’s provisional view that TikTok breached UK data protection law between May 2018 and July 2020.

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Commenting on the investigation, Information Commissioner John Edwards emphasised that the findings in the notice were provisional.

He said: “We all want children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections.

“Companies providing digital services have a legal duty to put those protections in place, but our provisional view is that TikTok fell short of meeting that requirement.”

At this stage, “no conclusion should be drawn” as to whether TikTok breached data protection laws, the regulator noted in a statement.

The ICO said it will also “carefully consider” any representations from the social media firm before taking a final decision.

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