Federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and commissioners in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec found TikTok failed to keep Canadian children off its platform and collected vast amounts of personal information, including information considered sensitive.

“The investigation uncovered that TikTok removes approximately 500,000 underage users from the platform each year,” said the report. “Where these children were engaging with the platform before being removed, TikTok was already collecting, inferring and using information about them to serve them targeted ads and recommend tailored content to them.”

Face, voice recognition

TikTok was caught using biometric information via facial and vocal analytics. It did not adequately explain to users that their data would be used to infer age and gender for the delivery of tailored ads and recommended content.

[...]

The investigation also found the company’s privacy policy was deficient.

“While TikTok requires users to expressly accept its terms and conditions and privacy policy during account sign-up, we found that such consent — vis-à-vis TikTok’s practices related to tracking, profiling, targeting and content personalization — was not valid or meaningful.”

[...]

In November 2024, the federal cabinet ordered TikTok to wind-up Canadian operations for national security reasons. However, the app was not banned from Canada and TikTok has applied for a judicial review in Federal Court.

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[–] SamuelRJankis@sh.itjust.works 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

We're more than a decade into this and barely anything has been done about it. Not only that but the specific company involved is now one of the largest companies in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal

At the end of the day every country will have to deal with every social media app.

Edit: Just to point out OP has a very significant interest in China as you can see in their profile.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Nothing's been done about it because the oligarchs who own every political class, in every country, are using big data and analytics to wage psychological warfare and infect the global population with a sort "disinformation psychosis", "broke mind virus", etc ... corrupt societies logic and mental health so significantly they can enslave us, rob us blind, use us for cannon fodder, etc, etc.

Representative democracy is the only threat to their wealth and power, so their goal is to exterminate it.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 months ago

Mentioning TikTok, but not every American social media app is dishonest. Trumps fascist oligarchy can't pretend to be the goodguys as they send the military against their own peaceful civilians.