TikTok could face a $29 million fine in the UK for failing to protect kids’ privacy

TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, is used by over 1 billion people worldwide every month.

The company may face a fine in the UK for failing to protect children's data.

A notice of intent was issued by the Information Commissioner's Office to the Chinese-owned video app. The company has been under investigation since the beginning of 2019.

TikTok may have processed the data of children under the age of 13 without parental consent, failed to present information to its users in a way that's easy to understand, and processed "special category data", such as information on a person's race or

The information commissioner wants children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections.

We think that TikTok fell short of meeting the legal duty to put protections in place.

No conclusion should be drawn at this stage that there has been any violation of data protection law or that a financial penalty will be imposed, according to theICO. 4% of TikTok's annual global revenues can be fined by the ICO under the EU'sGDPR.

TikTok has 30 days to respond to the decision. If company officials make a convincing enough case justifying their handling of children's data, the ICO may reduce the size of the penalty.

A TikTok spokesman told CNBC that the company disagrees with the fines and will make a formal reply.

TikTok disagrees with the preliminary views expressed and intends to respond to theICO in due course, according to the spokesman.

The ICO said it is looking into 50 different online platforms' handling of children's data overall and has six active investigations into companies who haven't taken their responsibilities around child safety seriously enough.

Teens post everything from dancing videos to educational clips on TikTok. The platform is owned by Beijing-based internet giant ByteDance.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority fined TikTok 750,000 euro for violating the privacy of young children and failing to give its information in Dutch. The fine is being appealed.

For a long time, TikTok had largely skirted the attention of regulators, with most of the focus reserved for American firms. The company is being subjected to heightened political scrutiny because of it's position in the battle for eyeballs online.

The platform may be giving Beijing a way to snoop on non- Chinese users. Donald Trump tried to get TikTok to sell its U.S. division.