Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority has fined ByteDance 153.7 million reais for unlawfully handling minors’ personal data, imposing strict measures to tighten safety protocols for young users on TikTok.
Brazil’s data protection regulator has imposed a 153.7 million reais fine on ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, over the handling of children’s and adolescents’ personal data, marking the authority’s largest penalty to date. According to the National Data Protection Authority, the platform collected and processed minors’ data without a proper legal basis and did so in ways that affected both registered users and people using the service without an account.
The sanction, published on Monday in Brazil’s Official Gazette, also requires TikTok to delete data gathered unlawfully and to present a compliance plan aimed at strengthening safeguards for younger users. The regulator said existing protections were not effective enough to prevent improper collection and processing.
Under the approved plan, accounts belonging to users under 16 will default to stricter privacy settings, which can only be changed with a guardian’s consent. TikTok must also expand parental controls and tighten content filtering. For its non-registered version, the platform will have to suspend advertising, limit material to all-ages content, and disable comments, direct messaging, live streaming and other social features, while sharply reducing personal data collection.
The move reflects Brazil’s wider push to increase oversight of digital platforms, particularly where child safety is concerned. Earlier in August, the ANPD ordered Discord to suspend live-streaming functions in Brazil after identifying weaknesses in its protections for children and teenagers.
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