Collection of User Data

Three biggest threats to the world from TikTok China has opposed the anti-TikTok bill in the US Congress, calling it unfair. Concerns have been expressed in the United States about the social media company TikTok, owned by a Chinese company, for the past several years.

In several western countries, officials, politicians and security personnel have been banned from installing TikTok on their mobile phones.

What are the three biggest cyber concerns for TikTok and what is the company’s position on the topic?

The social media company says its app’s user data collection process is consistent with “industry-wide” practice.

Critics of TikTok say the company is collecting massive amounts of user data. A report published in July 2022 by Australian cyber company Internet 0.2 is often cited to substantiate this claim.

Researchers looking into TikTok’s source code say the social media app ‘collects massive amounts of data.

Cyber analysts say TikTok also collects information about users’ location, device type and what other apps are on that device.

But according to research conducted by Citizen Lab, TikTok “collects the same kind of data as other popular social media platforms that can be used to get information about the mood of users.”

A similar report from the Georgia Institute of Technology states: “The bottom line is that other social media and mobile apps work the same way.”

Using TikTok for Spying

Three biggest threats to the world from TikTok says it is a completely independent company and that it has “never provided user data to the Chinese government, and even if we were asked, we would not.”

It must be worrying for experts, but there is no doubt that when we are using social media apps, we are handing over our private data to them on a large scale.

Companies are providing their services to us for free and in return receiving information about us so that they can show us ads based on our preferences. Or, often, they sell our data to other companies that are interested in showing us their ads elsewhere on the Internet.

Another issue critics have with TikTok is that it is owned by Beijing-based company Byte Dance and is the only social media streaming app not based in the US.

In addition, for example, Facebook, Instagram, Snap chat and YouTube also collect user data like TikTok, but all these social media platforms are owned by American companies.

Over the years, like US lawmakers, the rest of the world has assumed that user data collected by US social media companies will not be used for any nefarious purpose that threatens national security.

An executive order issued by Donald Trump’s administration in 2020 stated that the data collected by TikTok could be used by the chain to “trace the location of government officials and contractors, collect information for blackmailing and business activities.” It will help in ‘spying’.

But given the evidence that has come to light so far, all these concerns seem to be hypothetical, fueled by the passage of an obscure law in China in 2017.

Article Seven of China’s National Intelligence Law obliges all Chinese companies and citizens to “support, assist and cooperate” with the country’s intelligence activities.

Those who are skeptical about TikTok cite the same law in China.

But researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say a sentence in China’s law is taken out of context because it also includes protections for private companies and consumers.

Since 2020, TikTok officials have repeatedly assured people that the company’s Chinese staff are not allowed to access the data of users from other countries.

But in 2022, Byte Dance itself admitted that company employees in Beijing had accessed the data of two journalists from the US and the UK to track their meetings with company employees.

A TikTok spokeswoman says the Chinese employees who accessed the data have been fired.

The company says that customer data has never been stored in China, but data centers are being built in the US state of Texas and Europe to secure the data of American customers.

TikTok being used for ‘mind manipulation?

Three biggest threats to the world from TikTok says the rules it implements “prohibit any false information that harms any community or people.”

In November 2022, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, told US members of Congress: “The Chinese government may control (TikTok’s) algorithm, which can be used in mind-bending operations.”

Since then, this claim has been repeated time and time again.

Another ‘bite dance’ app ‘Dwayne’ is only used in China and critics say that the social media app is being manipulated by the worst censorship of the youth.

All social media platforms in China are subject to censor ship, and criticism of the Chinese government and anything that threatens to incite political unrest are deleted by the internet police.

Since the rise of TikTok, there have been many cases of censorship. A TikTok user’s account in the US was suspended simply because he criticized the government’s treatment of Chinese Muslims.

Citizen Lab researchers say that there is a clear difference between the policies of TikTok and Doane, and that TikTok avoids political censorship.

The researchers wrote in their report that ‘Censorship policy was not implemented by TikTok.

In this regard, a report by analysts from the Georgia University of Technology wrote that they also searched for jokes about Taiwan independence and Chinese President Xi Jinping on TikTok and found that: ‘All of this category Videos are easily searchable on TikTok. Some of them are quite popular and are widely shared.

Can this app be banned?

Critics say that three biggest threats to the world from TikTok may not seem harmful yet, but it can be used as a powerful weapon in any war situation, for example.

TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps were banned in India in 2020.

But the expected US ban could have a bigger impact on TikTok as US allies have generally been seen to endorse its decisions.

This was seen in the past when the US blocked the Chinese company Huawei from being a part of the 5G infrastructure project.

It is also worth noting that Chinese users have also been facing restrictions on using American social media apps for years.