What happened?
The Chinese Tiktok app gives employees in multiple countries, including China, access to user data. This is evident from the new privacy policy of the social media company.
The updated data protection directive should apply from December 2 — including for Switzerland, Britain and the European Economic Area, as Britain’s “Guardian” reported Thursday.
Why is that important?
The smartphone app, which is particularly popular among young people, has come under international fire for questionable handling of user data.
The Irish Data Protection Authority, which is responsible for TikTok across the EU, has launched an investigation into “personal data transfers by TikTok to China”.
Independent experts have been warning for some time. Michael Veale, associate professor of digital law at University College London, told the Guardian:
At the same time, the British expert put it into perspective:
The handling of user data is also controlled by Tiktok in the US. As is well known, the US government is waging an economic war against China. It was only recently that sanctions against the Chinese semiconductor industry were drastically tightened.
How does Tiktok justify itself?
The Guardian quotes TikTok’s data protection officer in Europe, Elaine Fox:
Tiktok could mainly use the data to monitor the performance of its own algorithms. Something to figure out how video recommending works and to automatically recognize and ban Tiktok accounts (bots) from the platform.
What will change in the privacy policy?
According to the European TikTok data protection officer, the updated privacy policy states that the company does not collect “precise location information” from users in Europe, whether or not based on GPS technology.
According to the Guardian, the current version of the privacy policy also says, “With your consent, we may also collect accurate location information (e.g. GPS).”
Is this new?
The discussions about data protection issues and the questionable handling of user data have been going on for a long time. In 2019, an American media professor warned of “a Chinese data bomb” that could explode at any moment.
In a letter to US politicians published in July (2022), TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said foreign employees can view a “limited set of non-sensitive” US user data. Subject to approval by a US-based TikTok security team. He added that none of the data would be shared with Chinese government officials.
In October, TikTok denied a report from business magazine Forbes that the app had been used to “target” US citizens. Forbes had reported that TikTok plans to track the location of at least two people through its video-sharing app.
sources
- theguardian.com: TikTok tells European users that their staff in China can access their data
(dsc)
Source: Watson
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
