TikTok said Friday that it would build two additional European data centers to address Western consumers' data privacy concerns.
Governments in Europe and the United States have criticized TikTok privacy concerns that it may be collecting and sending large amounts of user data to China.
In a blog post, Rich Waterworth, the company's general manager for European operations, said it is "in an advanced stage" of completing a proposal for a second data center in Ireland with a third-party operator. It revealed plans to build a facility there last year, according to AP News.
TikTok is also in discussions to establish a third data center in Europe as it seeks to extend data storage capacity in line with the expansion of its network, according to Waterworth.
Waterworth said European TikTok data would be moved to the new centers this year.
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US Experts Say Chinese Government Could Use TikTok To Gather User Data
Teens love the social media app, but parents have TikTok privacy concerns that Beijing may use TikTok to spy on them or spread propaganda in favor of China since it's owned by a Chinese company. ByteDance, a Chinese business that migrated to Singapore in 2020, owns TikTok.
Senior technology writer at Gizmodo Thomas Germain said TikTok gathers information from its users, including access to their contact lists, according to CBS News.
Although other apps gather comparable information, US authorities have frequently expressed TikTok privacy concerns that the Xi Jinping government could force TikTok to divulge user data.
During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in November, FBI director Christopher Wray said the Chinese government could use it to gather data on millions of users or manipulate the recommendation algorithm, per NPR.
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