"TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made," CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify on Thursday, according to written testimony posted on Tuesday by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.
TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, and the company is required to turn over any data and information they collect to the Chinese government at a moment's notice. Therefore, your data can be shared with the Chinese government and used to spy on you or spread misinformation about the American people.
The company told ABC News on Thursday that since June, all new U.S. user data has been routed to the Oracle cloud, and since October, access to that secure environment has been limited to employees of TikTok U.S. Data Security; Today, those employees manage all access to U.S. user data.
TikTok has long stored U.S. and global user data in its own data centers in Singapore, with the sovereign city-state serving as a backup data storage location for its U.S. users.
The company allegedly uses different tactics to conceal that they're transferring user data. Even when a user closes the app, it still harvests biometric and user data, the lawsuit states. Citing articles from news outlets such as CNBC, Quartz and Affinity Magazine, the lawsuit alleges user data was sent to China.
TikTok has also acknowledged that some China-based employees have accessed US user data, though it's unclear for what purpose, and it has disclosed to European users that China-based employees may access their data as part of doing their jobs.
"TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made," CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify on Thursday, according to written testimony posted on Tuesday by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.
TikTok, which has over 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd., which appoints its executives. ByteDance is based in Beijing but registered in the Cayman Islands, as is common for privately owned Chinese companies.
23.12. 2022 update: be very careful because TikTok employees actually have the ability to track your location if you use the app. On December 22, ByteDance admitted that four of their employees used the app as a surveillance method for journalists who reported on TikTok's ties with the Chinese government.
In summary, these permissions allow TikTok to: Access the camera (and take pictures/video), the microphone (and record sound), the device's WIFI connection, and the full contact list on the device. Determine if the internet is available and access it.
We are committed to maintaining your trust, and while TikTok does not sell your personal information or share your personal information with third parties for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising where restricted by applicable law, we want you to understand when and with whom we may share the Information We ...
Still, TikTok has a long list of very real privacy scandals under its belt. In December 2022, the company admitted that employees had spied on reporters using location data, in an attempt to track down the source of leaked information. Those employees were fired, TikTok's parent company ByteDance said.
TikTok Tracks You Across the Web, Even If You Don't Use App - Consumer Reports. Ad-free.
The country said that the app presented an “unacceptable” risk to privacy and security. India: The country was one of the first ones to prohibit TikTok and other Chinese apps in 2020 soon after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a confrontation with Chinese troops along their disputed Himalayan border.
“ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. It is a private company,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said during the March 23 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Here's what to know: WHAT ARE THE CONCERNS ABOUT TIKTOK? Both the FBI and officials at the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with China's authoritarian government.
TikTok is fighting to stay alive in the United States as pressure builds in Washington to ban the app if its Chinese owners don't sell the company. But the wildly popular platform, developed with homegrown Chinese technology, isn't accessible in China.
If you delete your account and uninstall the app from your phone, TikTok can't collect your data going forward, says Katherine Isaac, an executive at cybersecurity firm Carbide.
They're interested in which videos you watch and which ones you skip. " Cybersecurity expert Will Gragido of NetWitness added: "Statistical information, demographic information, your likes, your dislikes, who your contacts are that are already on the platform."
Now that Instagram is owned by Facebook and inextricably linked to it, it makes sense for Chinese authorities to block Instagram as well. Banning Instagram also creates a vacuum to be filled by a homegrown Chinese competitor. Several Instagram-like apps have sprung up on Chinese app stores attempting to take its place.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew got his start in tech at Facebook—now his app is its biggest competitor. Prior to running the most popular social media app in the world, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was an intern for one of his largest competitors.
TikTok makes money from advertising, shop commissions, fees from subscriptions, and music royalties. The business model of TikTok is centered around becoming a super app on which users can not only consume videos, but shop for items, play games, and so much more.