Internet privacy campaigners said on Thursday they had filed complaints in several European countries against six Chinese companies, including TikTok, accusing them of “illegally” sending Europeans’ personal data to China.
Prominent Austria-based privacy campaign group NOYB (None of Your Business) said it has filed six complaints against TikTok, AliExpress, SHEIN, Temu, WeChat and Xiaomi — in its first such move against and Chinese companies.
Complaints were filed in Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.
Noyb has launched several legal cases against US technology giants such as Meta and Google, often resulting in action from regulatory authorities for violations of the EU’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
GDPR aims to make it easier for people to control how companies use their personal information.
“Since China is a sovereign surveillance country, it is clear that China does not provide the same level of data protection as the EU,” said NOYB data protection lawyer Kleanthi Sardeli.
“Transferring the information of European citizens is illegal — and must be stopped immediately,” Sardeli said in a statement.
According to the privacy group, AliExpress, SHEIN, TikTok and Xiaomi “transfer data to China”, while Temu and WeChat talk about transfers to “third countries”.
“Since neither company has adequately responded to the plaintiffs’ access requests, we must assume that this includes China,” the statement said.
Noyb believes that “the proliferation of Chinese applications opens (up) a new future” for EU data protection law.
TikTok declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
Noyb said he wanted administrative fines of up to 4 percent of the companies’ global sales, which would amount to 1.35 billion euros ($1.39 billion) in Termu.
The group started working in 2018 with the advent of GDPR.
bg-kym/rl
Source link
