TikTok has agreed to a $2-million settlement after lawsuits asserted the popular social media platform illegally collected and commercialized personal data from its Canadian users.
The settlement agreement, approved by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Edelmann on Feb. 25, ended two lawsuits against the companies operating the app: TikTok Inc. and TikTok Pte. Ltd. and musical.ly Inc., musical.ly and Bytedance Technology Co. Ltd.
One suit claimed TikTok collected private information from underage users without proper consent. The suit alleged and sought damages under B.C.’s Privacy Act, Infants Act and at common law.
Edelmann certified that suit as a class action in 2021.
The second suit alleged TikTok — through the app on Android devices — deliberately collected users’ MAC addresses in breach of Google's policies and users' privacy.
On Dec. 9, 2021, TikTok sent an in-app notice to all active TikTok accounts in Canada, the decision said. Users were notified that if they used TikTok on or before Oct. 28, 2021, they may be affected by a class action settlement. A link to the settlement website was provided.
“After the in-app notice went out, approximately 389,458 unique visits were made to the settlement website,” Edelmann said.
Court documents show any money left in the settlement once all disbursements are made will be distributed to the following:
- Law Foundation of British Columbia (50%)
- Canadian Centre for Child Protection (16.67%)
- Kids Help Phone (16.67%)
- Boys & Girls Club Canada (16.66%)
In his decision, Edelmann said "the conduct complained of is past conduct." He pointed to the "age gate" TikTok introduced in 2017, which prevents underage users from using the service.
"TikTok has also created a formal procedure for closing an underage user's account. In 2019, TikTok implemented a content moderation process that includes monitoring for underage user accounts and deleting them," Edelmann said. "In addition... TikTok has undertaken not to collect various forms of data unless expressly disclosed in its privacy policy."
Edelmann also approved a 25 per cent contingency payment for lawyers involved and $1,500 for each of the two representative claimants in the cases.
The B.C. settlement comes after the company settled a similar lawsuit in the United States for US$92 million in 2021.
