Communist China-tied social media giant TikTok is “pausing” its new privacy policy that was set to roll out in Europe.
TechCrunch reported that the new policy would have discontinued the platform’s request for user consent to receive targeted advertising. Under the new policy, the user would be unable to opt out of the ads.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said the policy was paused following “engagement” between the office and the platform.
“Further to engagement with the DPC yesterday, TikTok has now agreed to pause the application of the changes to allow for the DPC to carry out its analysis,” a DPC spokesperson said, according to TechCrunch.
TikTok told TechCrunch the pause would give the platform the chance to “engage” questions asked by stakeholders:
While we engage on the questions from stakeholders about our proposed personalised advertising changes in Europe, we are pausing the introduction of that part of our privacy policy update. We believe that personalised advertising provides the best in-app experience for our community and brings us in line with industry practices, and we look forward to engaging with stakeholders and addressing their concerns.
TikTok has faced a significant amount of criticism on its privacy policies over the years.
Last year, NewsBusters reported that the platform’s parent company, ByteDance, sold a stake to WangTouZhongWen Technology, a company in Beijing owned by three government entities in China.
TikTok’s privacy policy allowed it to share unlimited amounts of user data with ByteDance.
“We may share all of the information we collect with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group,” TikTok’s policy read at the time.
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