TikTok announced that it has finished transferring data on its US users to Oracle Corp. servers, potentially addressing US regulatory worries about data integrity on the popular short video app.
A US national security panel ordered parent firm ByteDance to sell TikTok nearly two years ago, citing concerns that US user data may be transferred to China's communist government.
TikTok Company Repeatedly Accessed US-Based Data
According to stolen audio from over 80 internal TikTok meetings released by BuzzFeed News on Friday, such material has been frequently accessed by China-based ByteDance personnel.
A TikTok spokeswoman stated in a brief statement, "We realize we're among the most scrutinized platforms in terms of security, and we seek to erase any question regarding the protection of US user data."
TikTok is one of the most popular social media applications in the world, with over 1 billion active users worldwide, and the United States is its largest market. The United States has been more concerned about app developers' personal information, as per South China Morning Post.
According to the injunction, TikTok's data-collecting poses a risk of giving the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and private information. Last year, President Joe Biden overturned Trump's executive orders and issued a new executive order that repealed the unimplemented TikTok ban and asked for an evidence-based examination to address the hazards posed by internet services owned by foreign organizations.
TikTok has admitted that access to its user data has been an issue. Although Project Texas would eventually prevent huge volumes of user data from traveling to China, the recordings indicate that locating these pathways has been challenging.
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Employees Are Unable To Find Loopholes in US Data
Employees explain how data passes through internal TikTok and ByteDance platforms, including those used for content moderation and revenue, during one of the sessions in the recordings.
Furthermore, some of the recordings show that people in control of these systems are unable to discover the gaps via which data is transferred to China. TikTok's announcement to store data on Oracle, however, adds that the app will continue to utilize its data centers in Virginia and Singapore to backup information as it works to fully transition to depending on Oracle in the United States, TikTok stated in a post, according to Daily Mail.
According to a TikTok spokesman, the company hired world-class internal and external security specialists to help boost data protection operations. Given the complexity of the data security situation, this is normal business practice. TikTok attempted to address user security concerns in a blog post just before BuzzFeed's piece was published. The blog post disclosed that TikTok has moved data on its US users to Oracle-hosted servers.
Former President Donald Trump's administration regularly expressed worry that the Chinese Community Party may inappropriately get access to American consumers' personal information. Trump administration officials claimed that ByteDance's parent business had direct links to Chinese officials and presented a national security concern.
Trump attempted to persuade ByteDance to sell TikTok and also sought an outright ban on TikTok downloads by executive order. A federal court stopped the latter endeavor. Later, President Biden rescinded the Trump administration's attempt to prohibit TikTok and instead directed Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to conduct an assessment of applications that potentially represent a security concern, New York Post reported.
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