A European privacy watchdog group, noyb, is going after three major Chinese companies: TikTok, AliExpress, and WeChat. The group filed complaints accusing them of breaking strict EU privacy laws.
According to noyb, these companies make it incredibly difficult for users to obtain a full copy of the personal information they have collected, a right guaranteed to everyone in the European Union.
While most big tech companies have tools that let you download your data with a few clicks, noyb says these Chinese firms don’t make it that easy. Kleanthi Sardeli, a lawyer for the group, stated that these companies are eager to collect as much data as possible but often refuse to provide people with full access when they request it.
This is noyb’s first rodeo. The group is known for filing similar complaints against American tech giants, including Google, Apple, and Meta, the company behind Facebook. Those cases have led to major investigations and resulted in billions of dollars in fines, showing that regulators take their complaints very seriously.
This action is part of a bigger push by the privacy group. In January, noyb filed complaints against six other Chinese companies, requesting that regulators block data transfers to China. If found guilty of breaking EU rules, these companies could face substantial fines, potentially reaching up to 4% of their total worldwide income. The new complaints put even more pressure on the popular apps to be transparent about the data they hold on their European users.
