TikTok has been Warned by Italy's Watchdog for Allegedly Violating EU Privacy Rules

The Italian data protection authority has formally warned Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok about an alleged violation of existing EU privacy rules, the watchdog said on Monday. TikTok, which has seen rapid growth worldwide, particularly among teenagers, told users in recent weeks that it would deliver targeted advertising to them but had not sought consent to use data stored on their devices, according to the Italian watchdog. A TikTok spokesperson in Italy had no immediate comment.

The Italian authorities expressed concern that inappropriate advertising could be directed at minors, citing TikTok's difficulties in accurately monitoring the ages of its users.

Recently, TikTok announced that it will restrict livestreams to viewers aged 18 and up in order to keep minors away from adult content. According to TechCrunch, the new user setting is currently being tested with a small group of users.

During the testing period, select users can toggle the "mature themes" button to limit their livestreaming to adults only. If you enable it, the platform states that "only viewers 18 and up can see your LIVE."

Once enabled, TikTok will notify the user that LIVE videos tagged 18+ will still be removed if they violate community guidelines. TikTok recently announced that it was working on a system to identify and restrict certain types of content from being accessed by teenagers.