© APA/AFP/LOIC VENANCE / LOIC VENANCE
In the US there is a ban on the popular Social-Media-App TikTok shortly before. The Chinese app is no longer allowed on the cell phones of EU officials. Now the data protection expert reports Max Schrems to word.
Accordingly, the EU data protection regulation does not actually allow the use of TikTok. Schrems emphasized this on Friday in the APA interview. Schrems pointed out that China the TikTok user data can be accessed and the level of data protection there does not correspond to that in Europe. Politicians who called for a TikTok ban would therefore “only have to read what is in the law. Then you simply can’t have it on your cell phone.”
No consequences after EGH judgment
In this context, Schrems criticized the “massive implementation deficit” in terms of data protection. That’s how he got it European Court on the question of data transfer to the USA 2 Mal decided negatively, but this had no consequences and there is also no proactive enforcement of the EU data protection rules by the member states. Since 1995 there has been a rule that data may not be forwarded from the EU “unless there are guarantees that it is secure”. In the case of China, that is not to be expected. “What’s new is that the United States has the problem of data being lost,” said Schrems, referring to the TikTok debate.
Schrems wrote the demands for a TikTok ban to a “HypeWhile he expects the authorities to comply with data protection regulations, he does not want to advise private users directly from TikTok Viennese lawyer, who became known to the social media giant Facebook, made a vivid comparison.
No-spy agreement required
Nevertheless, Schrems sees a difference between Washington and Peking. While one hardly knows what China is doing, they are Data Espionage Activities known to the United States. The US authorities would even buy databases, for example from Koran dealers, in order to carry out targeted killings with drone attacks. The assurances by TikTok and the Chinese government that they are not accessing user data should be evaluated accordingly. “Press releases are patient,” said Schrems, referring to similar statements from the US side.
In the long term, therefore, a “No Spy Agreement at least in democratic countries,” said Schrems. He criticized the fact that US data protection law only applies to American citizens and not to foreigners. In principle, Europe must work on gaining sovereignty over its digital infrastructure. That is a bigger issue than the protection standards of individual apps, according to Schrems, who is not a TikTok user himself because he is now “too old” for such applications.
Exclude access from China
Schrems considers technical solutions to protect TikTok user data in the West to be feasible. It is indeed quite possible to have access from China technically ruled outeven if continued by the Chinese company ByteDance programmed app is used. However, this is something different than the storage space emphasized by TikTok.
In the conflict with the US authorities, the company points out that US user data is also stored in US clouds. It’s getting “hairy” here, says Schrems. After all, the storage location says nothing about where the data can be accessed from. In fact, the TikTok terms and conditions allow access from China, according to Schrems.
Schrems was optimistic about the mega fine imposed on Facebook’s parent company Meta by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) at the beginning of January. The procedure will “take a relatively long time” because Meta should try to “drown the lawsuit with 19 procedures in legal disputes”. “In the long term, however, the chances are zero,” emphasized the founder of the data protection NGO noyb.
The benefit to Meta is that given the current inflation, it gains “10 percent” from every year of litigation. but noyb will not run out of air, assured Schrems. EDSA had to take a penalty of Meta 320 million euros fined for bypassing GDPR consent. According to the decision, Meta must in future offer a “yes/no” option for personalized advertising.
