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TikTok reveals Chinese employees spying on US users
Social media giant, TikTok, is keeping a close eye on US users through their data
TikTok has admitted that some of its employees have access to data on their American users.
The revelation instantly raised a lot of concerns whether the user's data is secured with Chinese government or not.
The testimony was made in a letter from TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and was addressed to several Senators who previously questioned the social network’s data-sharing practices.
The admission was prompted by a recent BuzzFeed News investigation into the ByteDance-owned company.
Published on June 17th, the report claims to have listened to leaked audio of more than 80 internal TikTok meetings.
Chew condemned the report, saying it included allegations that are incorrect and are not supported by facts.
He explained how the video-sharing site stores all its American user data in a US-based cloud storage service.
But the TikTok boss still admitted that staff in China could access local user data in some instances. "Employees outside the US, including China-based employees, can have access to US user data," the letter said.
CEO assured Senators that their access was subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by TikTok’s US-based security team.
"The level of approval required is based on the sensitivity of the data according to the classification system,” he added. The CEO also confirmed the social network’s Project Texas program. He explained that it aims to safeguard US user data by running TikTok from servers in Texas owned by Oracle, The Daily Mail reported.
The letter also answers 11 questions that the Senators requested to answer by July 18.
Additionally, the CEO told the Senators that TikTok’s algorithm will only be trained on data from the Oracle storage and the company will ensure appropriate third-party security vetting and validation of the algorithm.
However, the letter hasn’t managed to ease overall security concerns.
Speaking to NBC News, Senator Marsha Blackburn said that Chew’s response confirms suspicions that their fears regarding Chinese Communist Party influence within the company are real.
