ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, has admitted to improperly obtaining user data. This includes data from a journalist from FinancialTimes. This was done to investigate their location as part of an internal investigation into data leaks, writes the economic newspaper.
FinancialTimes is based, among other things, on an email from the CEO of ByteDance. The newspaper reports that it finds it “completely unacceptable” for journalists to be spied on, for their work to be interrupted or for their sources to be intimidated.
“We will investigate this story further before making a decision on our formal response,” the newspaper wrote. TikTok declined to comment on the post.
The tracking news comes at a time when TikTok is under fire. The platform is already facing growing national security concerns from US politicians. In the United States, there are particular fears that data on American users could be passed on to the Chinese government. Beijing strongly denies this.
Last week, the US Senate voted unanimously to pass a bill that would ban federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices.
TikTok has been working on a security agreement with the US government for months. As a result, the company would now fully store US user data in the United States. This would mean that American user data is stored in the United States on servers of the American company Oracle.
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