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European Union privacy watchdogs fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million) on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video-sharing app’s data transfers to China breached strict data privacy rules in the EU.Ireland’s Data Protection Commission also sanctioned TikTok for not being transparent with users about where their personal data was being sent and it ordered the company to comply with the rules within six months.The Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok’s lead data privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because the company’s European headquarters is based in Dublin.“TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.TikTok said it disagreed with the decision and plans to appeal.The company said in a blog post that the decision focuses on a “select period” ending in May 2023, before it embarked on a data localization project called Project Clover that involved building three data centers in Europe.“The facts are that Project Clover has some of the most stringent data protections anywhere in the industry, including unprecedented independent oversight by NCC Group, a leading European cybersecurity firm,” said Christine Grahn, TikTok’s European head of public policy and government relations. “The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures.”TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, has been under scrutiny in Europe over how it handles personal information of its users amid concerns from Western officials that it poses a security risk over user data sent to China. In 2023, the Irish watchdog also fined the company hundreds of millions of euros in a separate child privacy investigation.The Irish watchdog said its investigation found that TikTok failed to address “potential access by Chinese authorities” to European users’ personal data under Chinese laws on anti-terrorism, counter-espionage, cybersecurity and national intelligence that were identified as “materially diverging” from EU standards.Grahn said TikTok has “has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.”Under the EU rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, European user data can only be transferred outside of the bloc if there are safeguards in place to ensure the same level of protection.Grahn said TikTok strongly disagreed with the Irish regulator’s argument that it didn’t carry out “necessary assessments” for data transfers, saying it sought advice from law firms and experts. She said TikTok was being “singled out” even though it uses the “same legal mechanisms” that thousands of other companies in Europe does and its approach is “in line” with EU rules.The investigation, which opened in September 2021, also found that TikTok’s privacy policy at the time did not name third countries, including China, where user data was transferred. The watchdog said the policy, which has since been updated, failed to explain that data processing involved “remote access to personal data stored in Singapore and the United States by personnel based in China.”TikTok faces further scrutiny from the Irish regulator, which said that the company had provided inaccurate information to throughout the inquiry by saying that it didn’t store European user data on Chinese servers. It wasn’t until April that it informed the regulator that it discovered in February that some data had in fact been stored on Chinese servers.Doyle said that the watchdog is taking the recent developments “very seriously” and “considering what further regulatory action may be warranted.” Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer
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Apple shares fell nearly 3% in premarket trade on Friday after the iPhone maker trimmed its share buyback program and CEO Tim Cook warned of additional tariff-related costs of about $900 million this quarter amid a raging Sino-U.S. trade war. The Cupertino, California-based company that makes over 90% of its products in China said it plans to shift production of iPhones to India to minimize the impact of President Donald Trump’s trade war. “It looks like Apple is progressing faster than expected with its move to shift production of US phones into the region (India),” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. Analysts at Wedbush echoed this view, referring to India as Apple’s “life raft supply chain” as the company navigates through tariff turbulence. Cook outlined how Apple has started to build up a stockpile of products so that the majority of its devices sold in the U.S. this quarter will not come from China. Tim Cook did his best to reassure investors on last nights earnings call, but many likely came away still wanting more clarity about what lies beyond June,” Matt said, adding that the $900 million hit to profit turned out to be smaller than many had feared. Apple, which has been grappling with increased competition in key market China from rivals like Huawei due to slower rollouts of AI features, was already in troubled waters before the tariffs hit. “The question for investors is what can replace China for Apple? This is not an easy question to answer and could threaten the long-term trajectory of Apples growth plan,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB. Despite electronics being exempted from U.S. President Donald Trump’s slew of import tariffs so far, Washington has signaled that some levies could be imposed in the coming weeks. Big Tech peers Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms beat quarterly estimates aided by artificial intelligence, while Amazon.com’s cloud revenue growth fell short of revenue expectations. These results were in stark contrast to dour forecasts from consumer electronics companies that are more exposed to tightening consumer budgetschipmakers Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Intel. Apple shares lost about 15% so far this year. That compares with a 2.3% fall in Meta, and a nearly 1% rise in Microsoft. Apple’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio is 27.63, compared with Microsoft’s 28.64 and Meta’s 21.48. (This story has been corrected to add ‘premarket trade’ in paragraph 1) Kanchana Chakravarty and Lucy Raitano, Reuters
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SharkNinja has announced the voluntary recall of more than 1.8 million units of Foodi multi-function pressure cookers after more than 100 reports of burn injuriesmany of them serious. Heres what you need to know about the SharkNinja pressure cooker recall. Whats happened? On May 1, home appliance company SharkNinja issued a recall for some of its SharkNinja pressure cookers, according to a notice posted on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) website. The recall covers more than 1.8 million units of SharkNinjas Foodi OP300 Series Multi-Function Pressure Cookers. The recall was issued after the company received 106 reports of burn injuries from people interacting with the cookers. The company has discovered that the pressure-cooking lids of the recalled units can be opened while the cooker is pressurized. This could result in burn injuries from hot contents in the cooker, according to the companys recall notice. In addition to the cooking units themselves, SharkNinja is also recalling lid replacements for the units that were sold separately. What pressure cooker is being recalled? SharkNinja says the recall covers the Ninja-brand Foodi OP300-series Pressure Cookers/TenderCrisp Air. The following model numbers of that series are being recalled: OP300 OP300C OP301 OP301A OP301C OP302 OP302BRN OP302HAQ OP302HB OP302HCN OP302HW OP305 OP305CO OP305CCO OP350CO In addition to the models above, the OP300 lid replacement with the SKU 111FY300 has also been recalled. How many SharkNinja OP300-series units are affected? According to the notice posted on the CPSC website, about 1,846,400 units are being recalled, as well as about 184,240 that were sold in Canada. Where were the recalled units sold? According to the CPSC, the recalled pressure cookers were sold at some of the largest retailers nationwide. They were sold in both physical retail stores and online. The physical retail stores where the recalled units were sold at include: Walmart Costco Sams Club Amazon Target The recalled pressure cookers were also sold online at: Ninjakitchen.com walmart.com costco.com samsclub.com amazon.com target.com The recalled units were sold from January 2019 through March 2025. Each unit retailed for around $200. Have the recalled products injured anyone? Unfortunately, yes. SharkNinja says that it has received 106 reports of burn injuries involving the recalled products. Even worse, more than 50 of those injuries included second- or third-degree burns to a persons body or face. What should I do if I have a recalled product? If you have the recalled pressure cooker or lid, you should immediately stop using the pressure cooker and ensure that no one else who has access to the pressure cooker uses it. You should then fill out the Ninja OP300 Series Recall form here. Once youve submitted the form, SharkNinja will send you a replacement lid. You should also dispose of your current faulty lid. You can view the full CPSC recall notice here, as well as SharkNinjas full FAQ on the recall here.
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