Court grants final approval of $92 million TikTok privacy class action settlement

July 28, 2022 – Today a federal district court in Illinois granted final approval of a $92 million settlement with TikTok. Among other things, the agreement settles multidistrict litigation on behalf of a nationwide class of 89 million app users who alleged TikTok surreptitiously harvested and profited from private user information in violation of numerous federal and state consumer privacy laws. In addition to the monetary award, the Court granted extensive injunctive relief, ordering TikTok to refrain, unless expressly disclosed in TikTok’s Privacy Policy, from (1) using the App to collect or store a user’s biometric information; (2) using the App to collect geolocation or GPS data; (3) using the App to collect information in users’ clipboards; (4) using the App to transmit user data outside of the United States; (5) storing user data in databases outside of the United States; and (6) uploading content generated by users to the App’s servers before the user saves or publishes it. As a part of the settlement, TikTok will also create, at its own expense, a comprehensive data privacy training and compliance program for all newly hired employees and contractors and to institute annual privacy training for all employees. The firm, led by partner David M. Given, mediated the first case in the nation and served on the plaintiffs’ leadership committee appointed by Judge Lucy Koh prior to her elevation to the Ninth Circuit.