TikTok is under scrutiny again in the US. Unlike other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, which are owned by American giants, TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. And, of course, this is considered a potential national security threat to Uncle Sam’s country, as the app has already been downloaded there over 300 times. millions once. While TikTok managed to avoid being ousted by the former Trump administration, it now has to deal with a new crisis. Buzzfeed recently reported that ByteDance’s Chinese employees have access to US TikTok user data.
TikTok confirms but reassures at the same time
Of course, this caused a storm of reaction. In a previous article, for example, we relayed the reaction of one of the FCC commissioners (US regulator) Brendan Carr (GOP), who asked Google and Apple to withdraw the network. social from their app stores. According to Bloomberg, this was confirmed by TikTok in a letter to nine US senators who asked for an explanation. Thus the network social acknowledges that employees in China who pass a series of security checks may be able to access information about US users. However, the network social also assured that this data is not shared with the Chinese government. “Employees outside the United States, including employees based in China, may have access to TikTok user data in the United States, subject to a set of strong cybersecurity controls and a permission approval protocol.”on read in the letter. Regarding Beijing, TikTok said that the Chinese Communist Party has never requested access to user data in the US and that it will not provide such data if requested.
TikTok works with Oracle to prevent risks
In addition, TikTok also reminds in its response that it is currently going to introduce place “Texas Project” via what network social should better protect the data of its American users. Through this project, implemented in partnership with Oracle, the network social intends to reassure users as well as the US government regarding data security. “While we are disappointed that the leaks have put us in this position, we are pleased to share significant progress towards our goals. As we recently reported, we now store 100% of US user data in the Oracle cloud by default, and we are working with Oracle on new advanced data security controls that we hope to complete in the near future. This work brings us closer to the day we can transition to a new, state-of-the-art system to protect our users’ data in the United States, with reliable and independent monitoring to ensure compliance.