Italian DPA warns Tik Tok against ‘personalized’ ads based on legitimate interest
The Italian data protection authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) warned TikTok that the personal data stored in users’ devices may not be used to profile those users and send personalized ads without their explicit consent. According to ePrivacy directive and Italian personal data protection law, which transposed that directive, consent is the only legal basis for ‘the storing of information, or the gaining of access to information already stored, in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user’.
Tik Tok had informed users that people aged above 18 would receive ‘personalized’ ads – i.e., based on profiling users’ behavior during their visits to TikTok – starting from the 13th of July. The platform had modified its privacy policy by stating that the processing of personal data would be based no longer on consent, but on vaguely defined ‘legitimate interests’ by Tik Tok and partners.
