LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) — A Washington State man alleges TikTok is illegally collecting users' data during their use of the app in violation of federal and state wiretap and privacy laws.
Yevgeniy S. Androshchuk filed a complaint Jan. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Tiktok Inc., frequently known as Musical.LY Inc., and Bytedance Inc., alleging violation of the Federal Wiretap Act and other claims.
The plaintiff claims that after downloading the TikTok app on his mobile phone, he clicked on links to external third-party websites and made purchases after viewing the ads in the app. He alleges that during his use of the app, TikTok collected data from his use of the third-party websites without his knowledge or consent.
The plaintiff claims that nowhere in TikTok's term of service or privacy policies does it disclose its collection of user data through a JavaScript code into third-party websites the users visit. He further claims TikTok's actions were willful and intentional and that its "interception" of user data violates the Federal Wiretap Act and other wiretap laws.
The plaintiff alleges that TikTok users have a "reasonable expectation" of privacy while using the app and that the defendants collected names, physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, usernames and passwords, as well as dates of birth, credit card numbers and other bank account information.
The plaintiff seeks monetary relief, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. He is represented by Jennifer Joost of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP in San Francisco.
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California case number 2:23-CV-00108