Noyb, an Austrian NGO specialized in privacy protection, filed complaints against Chinese companies Tiktok, Aliexpress and Wechat on Thursday, as they consider, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU).
According to the NGO, the three platforms have not responded properly to requests for access to personal data of its users, a key right guaranteed in European regulations.
Complaints have been filed with the data protection authorities in Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands.
While many large technological ones already have automated systems to facilitate this personal information through a download, Noyb points out that the Tiktok social network and the Aliexpress purchase platform only provided incomplete or unusable files.
In the case of the Wechat messaging system, the application was simply ignored.
Noyb points out in a statement that “Chinese applications are even worse than US suppliers” regarding access to data they store from their users.
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They denounce Tiktok, Aliexpress and Wechat for breaching European privacy legislation
“Technology companies love to collect all possible information about you, but they flatly refuse to give you full access, as required by EU legislation,” said Kleanthi Sardeli, Noyb’s lawyer.
This lack of transparency prevents users from checking if their data is legally used, especially in terms of transfers to authoritarian countries such as China, whose legislation allows government access to that information.
“According to EU legislation, data transfers outside the EU are only allowed if the country of destination does not undergo data protection,” recalls Noyb, adds that since Chinese laws “do not limit access to personal data by the authorities, companies cannot realistically protect the data of EU users.”
Applications are part of a series of legal actions initiated last January against Chinese companies, including Shein, Temu and Xiaomi, who did deliver information about user data after the request of Noyb.
Noyb asks the European authorities to enforce community legislation and impose sanctions to avoid these violations in the future.
As Noyb recalls, European legislation provides fines that could reach up to 4% of the global billing of sanctioned companies, which in the case of Aliexpress would mean up to 147 million euros.
NOYB is led by lawyer Max Schrems, known for two times the automatic personal data transfer system between EU and EU for non -compliance with community legislation.
With EFE information.
