Musical.ly (TikTok), $5,700,000
Largest COPPA penalty at the time. Musical.ly (now TikTok) collected personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.
Case identifiers
- Respondent
- Musical.ly (TikTok)
- Agency
- Federal Trade Commission
- Announced
- 2019-02-27
- Monetary relief
- $5,700,000
- Case number
- FTC File No. 172-3004
- Statutes cited
- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) · COPPA Rule
Key facts
- 1
Musical.ly required users to provide name, email, phone number, profile picture, and sometimes geolocation.
- 2
Company knew many users were under 13 but did not obtain verifiable parental consent.
- 3
Videos uploaded by children were publicly available by default.
- 4
$5.7 million penalty was the largest COPPA fine at the time.
Primary sources
Read the original government documents. These are the authoritative records, everything on this page is derived from them.
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Where this action sits in the tracker
- It is one of 19 FTC actions among the 26 cases in this tracker.
- Of the 19 tracked actions with monetary relief, $5,700,000 ranks number 11 by amount.
- 3 tracked actions were announced in 2019.
- It is one of 3 tracked children's-data actions.
FAQ
What did the FTC charge Musical.ly (TikTok) with?+
Largest COPPA penalty at the time. Musical.ly (now TikTok) collected personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. The Federal Trade Commission cited Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), COPPA Rule.
How much did Musical.ly (TikTok) pay?+
Musical.ly (TikTok) had monetary relief of $5,700,000, announced on 2019-02-27. The settlement also imposed injunctive terms (see below).
Does the Musical.ly (TikTok) settlement mean my data has been deleted?+
No, the order does not automatically delete your data. You retain any rights available under applicable state privacy law (CCPA, CPA, TDPSA, VCDPA, and others) to submit your own deletion request. OfflistMe can generate a user-reviewed request draft pre-addressed to the respondent’s privacy contact.
How can I read the original FTC order?+
The Federal Trade Commission press release is available at https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/02/video-social-networking-app-musically-agrees-settle-ftc-allegations-it-violated-childrens-privacy. The case / matter number is FTC File No. 172-3004.