Everyone Knows That TikTok Gathers Your Personal Data For China, Right?
What Is China Doing with TikTok Data? The Truth Is Horrifying
TikTok has confirmed that Chinese parent company ByteDance has had access to sensitive U.S. user data generated by the wildly popular video-sharing app.
“Employees outside the U.S., including China-based employees, can have access to TikTok U.S. user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our U.S.-based security team,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote in a June 30 letter to nine Republican senators.
The disclosure makes clear that TikTok executives had previously misled Congress and the American public about the matter.
It is long past time to ban the app or force its sale to American owners. Interim measures designed to ensure privacy will not prevent the Chinese central government or the Communist Party from surreptitiously obtaining data.
The senators questioned TikTok after BuzzFeed reported on June 17 that audio recordings of more than 80 internal TikTok meetings showed that ByteDance employees had accessed non-public U.S. user data from September to January.
“Everything is seen in China,” a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety Department said in September. A “Beijing-based engineer” known as “Master Admin” had “access to everything.”
Moreover, it appears that the U.S.-based operations of TikTok were window dressing. “U.S. staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes,” BuzzFeed reported.
TikTok has confirmed that Chinese parent company ByteDance has had access to sensitive U.S. user data generated by the wildly popular video-sharing app.
“Employees outside the U.S., including China-based employees, can have access to TikTok U.S. user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our U.S.-based security team,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote in a June 30 letter to nine Republican senators.
The disclosure makes clear that TikTok executives had previously misled Congress and the American public about the matter.
It is long past time to ban the app or force its sale to American owners. Interim measures designed to ensure privacy will not prevent the Chinese central government or the Communist Party from surreptitiously obtaining data.
The senators questioned TikTok after BuzzFeed reported on June 17 that audio recordings of more than 80 internal TikTok meetings showed that ByteDance employees had accessed non-public U.S. user data from September to January.
“Everything is seen in China,” a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety Department said in September. A “Beijing-based engineer” known as “Master Admin” had “access to everything.”
Moreover, it appears that the U.S.-based operations of TikTok were window dressing. “U.S. staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes,” BuzzFeed reported.
