TikTok halts new Europe privacy policy after targeted ads warning – TechCrunch

TikTok Inc. agreed to suspend a planned privacy policy update in Europe that sought to change the company's legal basis for targeted advertising, TechCrunch reported July 12, citing the Irish Data Protection Commission.

The Beijing Byte Dance Telecommunications Co. Ltd.-owned company decided to pause the policy change to allow the Irish regulator to conduct an analysis, a spokesperson for the regulator told TechCrunch. The Irish watchdog is TikTok's lead privacy regulator for the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, according to the report.

TikTok has announced changes to its personalized advertising settings in the European Economic Area, the U.K. and Switzerland. As part of the changes, TikTok will rely on "legitimate interests," instead of user consent, as its legal basis to process user activity for personalized ads targeting individuals who are 18 years old or older, beginning July 13.

Italy's data protection authority formally warned TikTok on July 11 over the planned policy change, saying it was "incompatible" with the EU's ePrivacy directive and Italy's personal data protection law. Under those regulations, the consent of "data subjects" is the only legal basis for storing and accessing user information, the regulator said.