TikTok reportedly faces a €500 million fine for sending private user data to China<p>TikTok will reportedly face a fine of over €500 million ($553 million) for transferring Europeans' private data to China.
Bloomberg <a data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1" class="no-affiliate-link" href="
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-03/tiktok-faces-fine-over-500-million-for-eu-data-sent-to-china">said[/url] on Thursday that Ireland's data protection commission, which regulates TikTok owner ByteDance's EU operations, could dish out the penalty before the end of April.</p>
<p>The fine results from a <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-european-safety-advisory-council-regulators-125252695.html">four-year investigation[/url] of TikTok's data handling practices. The probe reportedly concluded that ByteDance broke <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/2016-04-14-eu-data-protection-rules.html">Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws[/url] by transferring private user data to China to be accessed by engineers. The country is known for its <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/2018-02-22-china-xinjiang-surveillance-tech-spread.html">widespread, high-tech surveillance[/url].</p>
<span id="end-legacy-contents"></span><p>"TikTok tells us that EU data is transferred to the U.S. and not to China, however we have understood that there is possibility that maintenance and AI engineers in China may be accessing data," former Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon <a data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1" class="no-affiliate-link" href="
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-10/tiktok-may-be-sending-eu-data-to-china-its-data-watchdog-says">said[/url] in March 2021 when the probe began.</p>
<p>Ireland is taking the lead because, under the GDPR, the country where a company's European operations are located oversees compliance and enforcement. ByteDance's European headquarters are in Dublin. Bloomberg says the decision date and amount of the fine aren't yet finalized and could still change.</p>
<p>Of course, this isn't even ByteDance's biggest drama unfolding this week. The <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/social-media/what-will-happen-to-tiktok-a-look-at-the-potential-buyers-000110723.html">fate of TikTok's US operations hangs in the balance[/url] as it approaches an April 5 deadline to <a data-i13n="cpos:7;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-delays-tiktok-ban-for-at-least-75-days-via-executive-order-014523110.html">find a buyer or face a ban in America[/url]. The list of likely outcomes ranges from finding a buyer (Amazon has even <a data-i13n="cpos:8;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/social-media/amazon-reportedly-wants-to-buy-tiktok-now-too-173957102.html">thrown its hat in the ring[/url]) to its US investors rolling over their stakes into a new independent global company or <a data-i13n="cpos:9;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/social-media/what-will-happen-to-tiktok-a-look-at-the-potential-buyers-000110723.html">the deadline passing with another deadline extension[/url].</p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/tiktok-reportedly-faces-a-%E2%82%AC500-million-fine-for-sending-private-user-data-to-china-162214079.html?src=rssSource:
TikTok reportedly faces a €500 million fine for sending private user data to China
