Privacy Watchdog NOYB Targets AliExpress, TikTok, WeChat in New GDPR Complaint
Europe’s privacy battlefield widened today as NOYB (None of Your Business), the Vienna‑based watchdog led by activist Max Schrems, lodged complaints with data‑protection authorities in Austria, the Netherlands and Germany against AliExpress, TikTok and WeChat. Investigators say the three Chinese tech giants hamper or outright block the “right of access” enshrined in Article 15 of the GDPR, denying European users a full copy of their own data despite offering flashy download portals.
NOYB lawyers detail months‑long test requests showing partial files, broken links and opaque jargon where clear data sets should appear. They argue the platforms’ aggressive data harvesting—from purchase histories on AliExpress to behavioural telemetry on TikTok—makes transparency non‑negotiable, and urge regulators to halt transfers of EU data to China until compliance is proven. Under GDPR, each firm could face penalties of up to 4 percent of global revenue, an eye‑watering sum that for ByteDance and Alibaba would run into the billions.
AliExpress and TikTok said they are “reviewing the submission” and reiterated commitments to EU rules, while Tencent’s WeChat did not respond. Brussels officials confirmed receipt of the filings and signalled they may coordinate a cross‑border probe, raising the stakes for China’s digital heavyweights already navigating trade tensions and expanding EU tech scrutiny.
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