The FCC commissioner demanded that Apple and Google take TikTok out of their respective app shops earlier this week. However, the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, has now spoken on the matter and acknowledged that some staff stationed in China have access to user data for TikTok in the United States.
TikTok is a “sophisticated surveillance instrument,” according to the commissioner, who said that Chinese officials use TikTok to collect data. China could have access to all user data from September 2021 to January 2022, according to leaked audio from TikTok’s internal sessions.
The time is crucial since company officials stated during a congressional hearing in October 2021 that a U.S. security team determines who gets access.
In light of this, Mr. Carr wrote to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, urging them to take action to ban TikTok from their respective app stores.
According to the letter, TikTok violates both Apple and Google’s terms and conditions.
In a letter to Apple and Google, Mr. Carr argued that TikTok’s enormous data collection and Beijing’s apparent unrestricted access to that sensitive data presented an intolerable national security danger.
ByteDance affirmed in its answer today that some staff do require access to TikTok U.S. user data. It went on to emphasize, however, that our U.S.-based security team has put these personnel under a number of strict cybersecurity controls and authorized approval standards.
But according to Reuters, ByteDance also pledged to implement improvements that “completely safeguard user data and U.S. national security concerns.” In collaboration with Oracle, the business claimed to be finalizing “new enhanced data security safeguards.”
ByteDance moved U.S. customer data to Oracle servers last month, but the business continues to use U.S. and Singapore data centers for backups. TikTok claims that after this deal is finalized, it will completely switch to Oracle cloud servers located in the United States and remove protected data belonging to U.S. consumers from its own systems.
The company says it looks forward to speaking with Congressmen to go through the specifics of its letter in its response to the news from today.
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said in a statement to Bloomberg that TikTok’s response “confirms our suspicions about the CCP’s influence.”
Removing the app from the App Store and Play Store has been requested, but neither Apple nor Google have yet complied.
Despite news reports claiming that China might access sensitive user data from TikTok and the FCC commissioner’s request for the app to be taken down from Google’s app store, TikTok is still available at both the Apple and Google app stores.
