Name: Is TikTok Spying On You For China?
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Is TikTok Spying On You For China?

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BETAThis is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by&nbsp;Jul 25, 2020,The relentless pressure on TikTok ramped up further this week, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again claiming user data is sent to China. “It’s not possible to have your personal information flow across a Chinese server,” he warned during a British mediaMORE FROMBut the warning this week from the cyber security analysts at ProtonMail isn’t political point scoring—these are ex-CERN security engineers. TikTok’s “zealous data collection,” the company warns, “its use of Chinese infrastructure, and its parent company’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party make it a perfect tool for massive surveillance and data collection by the Chinese government.”ProtonMail says that it reviewed TikTok’s “data collection policies, lawsuits, cybersecurity white papers, past security vulnerabilities, and its privacy policy,” and concluded that “we find TikTok to be a grave privacy threat that likely shares data with the Chinese government.&nbsp;We recommend everyone approach TikTok with great caution, especially if your threat model includes the questionable use of your personal data or Chinese government surveillance.”ProtonMail also cites aTikTok stands by its defense, telling me “millions of American families use TikTok for entertainment and creative expression, which we recognize is not what federal government devices are for. Our American CEO, our CISO... our entire and growing U.S. team—which has tripled since the start of the year—have no higher priority than promoting a safe app experience that protects our users' privacy. That's our focus.”ProtonMail’s conclusion on TikTok is pretty stark: “The fact that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, one that has explicitly said it would deepen its cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party, makes this excessive data collection even more concerning. The Chinese government has a history of strong-arming and co-opting Chinese tech companies into sharing their data and then using this data to intimidate, threaten, censor, or engage in human rights abuses.”The Swiss-based company goes on to warn TikTok users that “from a security and privacy standpoint,&nbsp;TikTok is an extremely dangerous social media platform. Its potential for mass collection of data from hundreds of millions of adults, teenagers, and children poses a grave risk to privacy.” And its advice to those users is to proceed “with great caution... and and if this concerns you, you should strongly consider&nbsp;deleting TikTok&nbsp;and its associated data.”And so another week ends, and TikTok remains caught in this maelstrom of security controversy and Sino-American politics. A ban or sanctions of some sort seem ever more likely with each passing week, and the U.S. rhetoric has found an audience with other hawkish politicians around the world. As things stand, TikTok owner ByeDance has gone from topping the social media world to in just a few short weeks.The real issue for TikTok, though, is that there doesn’t need to be a smoking security gun for the U.S. and its allies to have a credible excuse to sanction and restrict the platform. China is an adversarial state to the U.S., the U.K. and their allies. There are reasons to believe Beijing could exert influence over TikTok parent ByteDance. That should be reason enough to act—and it’s looking ever more likely it will be.&nbsp;or&nbsp;.&nbsp;

BETAThis is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by&nbsp;Jul 25, 2020,The relentless pressure on TikTok ramped up further this week, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again claiming user data is sent to China. “It’s not possible to have your personal information flow across a Chinese server,” he warned during a British mediaMORE FROMBut the warning this week from the cyber security analysts at ProtonMail isn’t political point scoring—these are ex-CERN security engineers. TikTok’s “zealous data collection,” the company warns, “its use of Chinese infrastructure, and its parent company’s...

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Zak Doffman

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Is TikTok Spying On You For China?

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