It turns out TikTox may be more dangerous than we think.
It corrupts culture and common sense and is also assessed as a privacy and security risk.
House of Representatives’ Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor issued an advisory Wednesday discouraging lawmakers from using TikTok.The memo, citing information from the CAO’s CyberSecurity office, calls TikTok a “high risk” social media application that could jeopardize individuals’ privacy.The CyberSecurity office pointed to the excessive access to personal information users must grant the Chinese company in order to use the platform.”TikTok is a Chinese-owned company, and any use of this platform should be done with that in mind,” the memo reads. “The ‘TikTok’ mobile application has been deemed by the CAO Office of CyberSecurity to be a high-risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects customer data, its requirement of excessive permissions, and the potential security risks involved with its use.”
The memo contains some troubling revelations, including the assessment that TikTok can store users’ data, which can potentially be “mined for commercial and private purposes.”
The advisory listed the concerns that it said researchers had found in regards to TikTok, including access to device location, calendar, and photos. It also said the app could obtain other data, such as WiFi network name, Apple Mac address, personal phone number, and more.
TikTok pushed back on these claims.
Michael Beckerman, vice president and head of public policy in the Americas for TikTok, said in the letter that all the U.S. user traffic is being directed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and that the company expects to delete users’ personal information from the data centers and fully pivot to Oracle cloud servers in the U.S.He denied claims in the memo that the platform uses facial recognition technology or uses face and voice data to identify users.Beckerman said that TikTok does not automatically collect precise GPS location data, as the memo states. The letter states that the company does collect users’ approximate location based on their SIM card and IP address, which helps improve the user experience, comply with local laws and prevent fraud.He said TikTok does not collect information such as the SIM card’s serial number, active subscription information or integrated circuit card identification numbers.
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