This is thanks to the Austrian privacy advocacy group, Noyb, which has filed a complaint against the short-form video social media platform TikTok, fashion site Shein, smartphone maker Xiaomi, and three other Chinese firms for violating EU data transfer protections by conveying user data to China. According to the complaint, these companies breach EU data protection law by transferring personal data of EU users to China. Noyb is now taking legal action to address the shortcomings of social media platforms with regard to data privacy concerns worldwide.
EU Privacy Watchdogs Target TikTok, Shein, and Other Chinese Companies Over Data Transfers
Noyb, which has lodged previous grievances against other US-based tech companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook ’s parent company Meta, is now targeting Chinese firms. This is the first time the group complains against firms operating from China. The complaint has been filed in multiple European countries with Noyb asking for fines of up to 4% of a company’s global income for the following countries: Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Austria.
In its filing, Noyb accuses such companies as Alibaba’s AliExpress, Shein, TikTok, and Xiaomi of accepting that they transfer European users’ personal data to China. Some of the mentioned admission have been made in the transparency report and other related document. Other companies under investigation include Temu and Tencent’s WeChat, which Noyb alleges that they pass data onto unknown “third countries,” Noyb considers to be China.
However, the Chinese government has vehementy refuted all these allegations. On Friday, a spokesperson of China’s foreign ministry said the government “has never and will never order companies to collect or provide data from foreign countries in a disrespect to local laws.” But the Chinese government insisted on data protection and said that it follows both Chinese and global laws.
As the complaint gathers momentum, the EU’s privacy regulators should look into the matter resulting into more risks to Chinese firms targeting the European market. If the allegations raised by Noyb are true, these companies stand to lose millions in fines, as well as the risk of adverse consequences for their reputation in one of their biggest global markets.
Xiaomi Responds to EU Privacy Allegations Amid Growing Scrutiny
There are recent reports about Xiaomi’s response to the complaint filed by Noyb, regarding the unlawful transfer of EU user data to China most of them are under investigation. The company stated clearly, that it will be in compliance with all legal requirements if approached on issue to do with the complaint. The following statement came out from Xiaomi that clearly shows its willingness to fix the problem and to fully respect the GDPR.
However, as Xiaomi has taken the steps to respond, other platform firms responding to the complaint, such as Shein, TikTok, and Xiaomi’s competitor, Alibaba, failed to respond to requests for their comment. The failure to respond to these firms might create skepticism on their stand on these allegations as EU regulators and privacy watchdogs focus on the firms.
Currently under General Data Protection Regulation of European Union (GDPR) data transfer outside EU region is permitted only if the destination country offers appropriate level of protection to user data. If the personal data protection measures of a certain country are considered to be inadequate, the communication of such personal data to that country is prohibited under the regulation and businesses that fail to complied may face fines.
The complaint underscores the emerging challenges to data protection as firms originating from nations such as China continue to establish their businesses around the world. Since GDPR violations entail potential fines, the actors involved in cross-border data transfers risks are expected to be placed under pressure; technology firms will be forced to explain how they adhere to strict data protection standards.
In the course of the investigation the verdict may set precedents for other data transfers around the world, focusing on China based companies who operate in the EU. For now, the European privacy authorities are probably going to watch these cases closely and any penalty may influence the future direction of extraterritorial data privacy enforcement.
Data Privacy Lawyer Criticizes China's Data Protection, Cites TikTok’s Global Challenges
Kleanthi Sardeli, a data protection lawyer at Noyb has yielded heavily against China’s data protection standards and argued that since it is a authoritarian surveillance state, it does not offer the kind of protection as the EU does. Sardeli explained that the exporting of putting European users’ personal data is “clearly unlawful” under EU privacy rules and must stop at once. This position also underlines the increasing awareness of the international circulation of data and political consequences for countries.
The issue of data privacy is not only Noyb’s successful complaints about the companies. International authorities have recently been more attentive to TikTok and other similar Chinese companies. Now that governments are starting to restrict data privacy breaches, TikTok is the one that has to deal with the consequences, which is having them possibly banned and investigated in various territories.
TikTok’s problems have deepened in the United States which had threatened to ban the app starting Sunday, which may compel the company to pull the plug on the app for its US audience. The U.S. government has expressed concern that the social media application, TikTok, acquires and may provide user data to the Chinese government. This constant battle reveals the general geopolitical scenarios of China’s technological firms, which invest in other countries.
Of course, TikTok is not only facing the ban in the United States, but also under investigation in the European Commission. The investigation centres round the claims that the company was at some point involved in the election meddling, or, at the very least, it did not prevent the meddling at the time of the Romanian presidential election in November. This makes a new problem for TikTok regulating because it is not only required to comply with the legal and political systems of one country, but of several.
The international community is watching these cases closely as market leaders in China, the country’s tech giants are experiencing mounting pressure. Conclusions of these probes may have potentially long-reaching impact on cross-border data protection and business models of vendors from the tech sector.
