TikTok agrees to tighten child privacy safeguards after Canadian probe
Investigation finds platform collected sensitive data from minors.
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TikTok has pledged to strengthen its safeguards for young users after a Canadian investigation concluded that the platform’s existing measures to block under-13 users and protect children’s data were insufficient, as per a Reuters report.
The joint probe found that despite TikTok’s age rules, hundreds of thousands of children in Canada accessed the app each year. Investigators also determined that the company had harvested sensitive personal information from minors and used it for online marketing and targeted content.
While TikTok collects vast amounts of personal information about its users, including children, the findings noted that this data is then used to target the content and ads they see, which can have harmful impacts, particularly on youth.
In response, TikTok has reportedly agreed to enhance its age-verification systems, improve transparency about data use for younger audiences, and restrict advertisers from targeting under-18s beyond broad categories like language and region.
The platform also promised to expand privacy information accessible to Canadian users.
The case adds to the mounting global scrutiny on TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., as governments raise concerns about data privacy and national security.
The European Union’s top institutions have banned the app from staff devices, while the U.S. Senate has prohibited federal employees from using it on government-owned phones.
