Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Canada Finds TikTok’s Child Safeguards Inadequate, Sets Conditions and Oversight

The app remains available in Canada despite TikTok disputing parts of the report.

Overview

  • Federal and Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta privacy commissioners concluded a two‑year probe on Sept. 23 finding TikTok’s age‑assurance and data‑protection measures for children were inadequate.
  • Investigators said roughly 500,000 underage accounts are removed each year, yet data had already been collected and used to tailor ads and content before removal.
  • The report cited biometric and other signals, including facial and voice analytics and location, feeding elaborate profiling, and found TikTok failed to obtain meaningful consent from teens and adults.
  • TikTok agreed to strengthen age checks, clarify privacy communications (including in French), and stop advertisers from targeting users under 18 beyond broad categories such as language and approximate location.
  • Officials deemed the file conditionally resolved with monitoring to follow, as separate national‑security action ordering the wind‑down of TikTok’s Canadian corporate entity remains under legal challenge.