联邦贸易委员会向TikTok开罚单：非法收集儿童数据不可容忍

上周三，由于受美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）指控未经家长同意收集13岁以下儿童的个人信息，音乐应用Musical.ly同意支付570万美元罚金和解。去年Musical.ly被视频应用TikTok（即抖音国际版——译注）收购。

“Musical.ly的运营商，也就是TikTok明明知道用户里有很多孩子，但向13岁以下的用户收集姓名、电子邮箱和其他个人信息之前，并没有征求家长的同意。” FTC的主席乔·西蒙斯在一份声明中称。

根据联邦贸易委员会的新闻稿，这是有史以来涉及儿童隐私案罚金最高的一次。

在TikTok应用里，用户可以制作15秒的短视频，包括跳舞到吸引人的小花招之类五花八门的内容。然后用户可以把小视频串起来制作一分钟的内容，还能在社交平台上与其他用户分享。

该公司在官方网站上发布的声明称，针对未成年用户将创造“有限的、独立的应用体验，会采取额外的安全和隐私保护手段”。

“用户年龄较小的话，不能在TikTok上分享视频，评论其他人的视频，向用户发送消息，维护个人资料或粉丝之类。但还是可以观看策划内容，试用TikTok独特、别出心裁又极富表现力的功能，体验TikTok的核心，即展现创造力。”声明称。

该应用增速惊人迅速普及，已变成Facebook的竞争对手。移动市场洞察公司SensorTower的数据显示，有iOS和安卓端在TikTok下载量已超过10亿次。

其中大多数下载是在2018年，达6.63亿，也一举让TikTok跻身科技巨头之列。据SensorTower估算，去年Facebook的应用下载了约7.11亿次，Instagram的下载量为4.44亿次。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

Musical.ly, the lip-dubbing app that became a part of video app TikTok last year, agreed on last Wednesday to pay the Federal Trade Commission $5.7 million over allegations that it collected personal information from children under the age of 13 without getting parental consent.

“The operators of Musical.ly—now known as TikTok—knew many children were using the app, but they still failed to seek parental consent before collecting names, email addresses, and other personal information from users under the age of 13,” FTC Chairman Joe Simons said in a statement.

It’s the largest civil penalty ever collected in a privacy case related to children, according to the FTC’s news release.

The TikTok app allows users to create short 15-second videos, showing everything from dancing to silly stunts, which can then be strung together to create minute-long stories that can be shared with other people on the social platform.

In a statement posted to its website, the company said it will create “a limited, separate app experience that introduces additional safety and privacy protections designed specifically” for a younger audience.

“In the younger ecosystem, users cannot do things like share their videos on TikTok, comment on others’ videos, message with users, or maintain a profile or followers. However, they will be able to experience what TikTok is at its core—showcasing creativity—as they enjoy curated content and experiment with TikTok’s unique, fanciful, and expressive features,” the statement said.

The app’s tremendous growth and popularity has allowed it to become a Facebook rival. TikTok is available for iOS and Android users, and has been download more than one billion times, according to data from SensorTower, a mobile market insights company.

The bulk of those downloads, 663 million, happened in 2018, putting TikTok on par with other tech giants. Facebook’s app was downloaded an estimated 711 million times last year, while Instagram had 444 million downloads, according to SensorTower estimates.