China-owned TikTok denies it may use location info to trace US customers

TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based tech big ByteDance, is utilized by over 1 billion individuals worldwide each month.

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TikTok on Friday denied that it used particular location information to trace sure US people, pushing again in opposition to a Forbes report that alleged the Chinese language-owned video app was planning on finishing up such monitoring.

On Thursday, Forbes printed an article alleging TikTok, which is owned by Chinese language agency ByteDance, deliberate to make use of its app “to observe the private location of some particular Americans,” citing supplies seen by the publication.

Different allegations embody:

• The monitoring is carried out by TikTok mum or dad ByteDance’s Inner Audit and Threat Management division whose chief experiences on to the CEO.
• The division primarily conducts investigations into misconduct by staff but it surely additionally deliberate on an event to gather location information a few US citizen who by no means labored on the firm.

The Forbes article additionally stated that its unclear whether or not any information was truly collected.

TikTok hit again on the article in a collection of tweets claiming it lacks “each rigor and journalistic integrity.”

TikTok stated Forbes “select to not embody the portion of our assertion that disproved the feasibility of its core allegation: TikTok doesn’t gather exact GPS location info from US customers, that means TikTok couldn’t monitor US customers in the best way the article instructed.”

TikTok added that its app has by no means been used to “goal” any members of the US authorities, activists, public figures or journalists.

A Forbes spokesperson stated: “We’re assured in our sourcing, and we stand by our reporting.”

John Paczkowski, govt editor of expertise and innovation at Forbes, stated on Friday that TikTok and ByteDance “haven’t denied any of the claims within the story.”

TikTok has had a testing couple of years within the US ever since former President Donald Trump ordered the app to divest its US enterprise claiming it threatened nationwide safety. Washington has been involved that information collected on US residents by TikTok may get into the arms of the Chinese language authorities.

In July, TiKTok CEO Shou Zi Chew admitted that “staff exterior the US, together with China-based staff, can have entry to TikTok US consumer information topic to a collection of strong cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US-based safety staff .”

However the firm stated on the time it was endeavor a significant initiative referred to as Challenge Texas, which is meant to “totally safeguard consumer information and US nationwide safety pursuits.” This consists of storing all US information by default in Oracle’s cloud.