TikTok on a slippery slope when it comes to data protection?

In October, the American consumer association Consumer Reports had already revealed that the social network of the Chinese company ByteDance collects the personal data of its users but also that of Internet users who do not have an account.



This time, the case concerns two journalists who had already written about the company ByteDance - parent company of TikTok.

Employees of the company wrongly accessed data from the TikTok platform to track down these journalists in order to identify the sources behind information leaks to the media, the company admitted on Friday.

They hoped to identify links between staff and a Financial Times reporter as well as a former BuzzFeed reporter, according to an email from ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen seen by AFP.

An “unfortunate initiative”

The reason ?

The two journalists covered matters related to this company through information obtained in confidence.

However, the employees identified by Bytedance as having been in contact with these journalists no longer work for the company, Erich Andersen said, without giving further details on the total number of employees in this case.

In a statement to AFP, ByteDance condemned this "unfortunate initiative which seriously violated the company's code of conduct".

IP addresses of journalists were obtained, in order to determine whether they were in the same location as ByteDance colleagues suspected of leaking confidential information, an internal report transmitted by Erich Andersen showed.

The link with the Chinese Communist Party

This information undermines the image that TikTok strives to convey to customers and governments: that of a platform concerned about the protection of the data of its users, and respectful of national security.

Because TikTok critics are concerned that this data is accessible to the parent company of the platform, the Chinese group ByteDance, theoretically subject to the control of the Chinese Communist Party.

However, some experts believe these concerns are exaggerated.

They point out that many malicious actors can have access to this data regardless of who owns the platform.

TikTok said this year that it would store all US user information in the United States.

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  • By the Web

  • Application

  • TikTok

  • China

  • Journalist

  • Personal data