TikTok tells its European users that their information can be viewed by its staff in China
According to a source in the media, TikTok is clarifying to its European users of the platform that their data can be accessible by staff outside of the continent, including in China. This comes amid political and legal worries regarding Chinese access to user information on the site. The social video app that is owned by China is changing its privacy policies, according to The Guardian. This is to make sure that staff in countries, including China, can access user data to make sure that users have a “consistent, enjoyable, and safe” experience while using the platform.
According to the research, European user data is currently stored in the United States, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, and Israel. TikTok employees in the United States, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, and Israel could have access to European user data.
TikTok’s head of privacy in Europe, Elaine Fox, said: “Based on a demonstrated need to do their job, subject to a series of robust security controls and approval protocols, and by way of methods that are recognized under the GDPR [the EU’s general data protection regulation], we allow certain employees within our corporate group located in Brazil, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States, remote access to TikTok European user data.”
Checks on the functionality of the platform’s algorithms, which are responsible for recommending material to users and identifying malicious automated accounts, might be carried out with the help of the data collected from users. TikTok has admitted in the past that some of its employees in China have access to user data. These employees work for ByteDance, the business that owns TikTok.
Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive officer of TikTok, stated in a letter to Republican senators that was made public in July that a “narrow set of non-sensitive” US user data could be viewed by foreign employees of TikTok if given permission to do so by a security team that was based in the United States. According to a story from The Guardian, he added that none of the data had been shared with authorities from the Chinese government.
An update to the company’s privacy policy will become effective on December 2 in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland. This comes at a time when politicians and regulators are putting more pressure on the app, which has more than a billion users all over the world, to use the data it collects.