Twenty federal lawsuits have been filed on behalf of TikTok users in California and Illinois
Families are suing TikTok in what has turned into a major legal action in federal court. Dozens of minors, through their parents, are alleging that the video-sharing app collects information about their facial characteristics, locations and close contacts, and quietly sends that data to servers in China.
Twenty separate but similar federal lawsuits were filed over the past year on behalf of TikTok users in California, where the company has offices, and Illinois, which requires that technology companies receive written consent before collecting data on a person’s identity.
The suits now have been merged into one.
And on Tuesday, a panel of federal judges ruled that the case will be based in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Judge John Z. Lee was appointed as the presiding judge.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers will be asking Lee to expand the suit into a nationwide class action, potentially affecting tens of millions of American users.
While TikTok flatly denies the allegations, the company is under intense pressure to avoid a long, drawn-out legal battle. The Trump administration considers TikTok a national security threat because its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. President Trump said Monday that TikTok must be sold to an American suitor by Sept. 15 or “close down” in the United States. Microsoft Corp., for one, has acknowledged it is exploring a bid.
TikTok is fighting to have the privacy lawsuit dismissed. But if it survives, the suit could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.
A lawsuit filed under the same Illinois law against Facebook over its use of facial recognition technology recently prompted the social network to agree to a record data-privacy settlement of $650 million. Legal experts said, if the court approves the TikTok lawsuit as a national case, the settlement sum could exceed the Facebook payout.
The Illinois law, known as the Biometric Information Privacy Act, “has been striking fear in the heart of many companies in the United States for fear that claims like this will be brought,” said Leslie Weaver, one of the 33 plaintiffs’ attorneys involved in the litigation against TikTok.
Attorneys for TikTok said the app is neither capturing users’ biometric information nor sending any data to China. But TikTok’s legal team also argues that the company can transfer data to Beijing, if it so chooses, without breaking any laws.
The App’s privacy policy also fully discloses that user data will be shared with TikTok’s corporate affiliates and third-party business partners and service providers, as is standard with free social networking apps that have a business model based on advertising, TikTok lawyer Tony Weibell wrote in a submission to the court.