TikTok suspended changes to its privacy policy for targeted advertising on Tuesday, a day before they took effect, while the lead European Union regulator studies whether they comply with the bloc’s data protection rules.
Italy’s data protection authority had sounded an initial alarm, saying that Chinese-owned TikTok had told users of the video app that it was going to deliver targeted advertising to them from July 13 without requesting consent for using data stored on their devices.
The Italian watchdog had informed Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) of TikTok’s potential breaches of EU data rules. The Irish body is the lead EU regulator for TikTok and other leading internet businesses.
“Further to engagement with the DPC yesterday (11th July), TikTok has now agreed to pause the application of the changes to allow for the DPC to carry out its analysis,” the DPC said in a statement.
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