TikTok sued for billions in child privacy suit

With everything from viral dances to feta pasta recipes, TikTok has taken the world by storm.

But now the video sharing app and its Chinese parent ByteDance could face a damages claim worth billions of dollars in London's High Court.

That over allegations they illegally harvested the private data of millions of European children.

The former Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, is the so-called "litigation friend" for an anonymous 12-year-old girl leading the class action.

On Wednesday (April 21) she said that affected children could receive thousands of pounds each if the claim is successful.

Longfield says that every child who has used TikTok since May 2018 may have had private personal information illegally collected by ByteDance for unknown third parties.

A TikTok representative said privacy and safety were the company's top priorities and that it had robust processes and technologies in place to help protect all its users.

But the claimants allege TikTok violated UK and European Union data protection laws.

They say it processed young people's data without adequate security measures and transparency.

And allege it lacked the consent of guardians or legitimate interest.

The case has been put on hold as it awaits a UK Supreme Court ruling in a bellwether case against Google over alleged unlawful tracking of iPhone users.

That case will be heard next week.