TikTok the video hosting company of ByteDance, China is turning invasive these days as it is found invading the privacy of its users, more than intended. According to a report released by Internet 2.0- a cyber security firm from Alabama the video sharing platform is seen excessively engaging in data collection and is also found transmitting the collected information to China-based infrastructure.
Researchers of Internet 2.0 came to this conclusion after analyzing the source code of the mobile application, testing it thoroughly between July 1 to July 2022.
Report claims that TikTok was found using device mapping information, device location details hourly, continuous access to calendar app on a mobile device, frequent requests to access contacts and stealing phone information without user content.
Going by the history, during the regime of Donald Trump as President of United States, the company was banned across the United States as they considered it as a threat to national integrity. After witnessing a ban by North America, other western countries like Britain, Canada and Australia also imposed a ban on the company’s service usage in their region, respectively.
As soon as TikTok faced a backlash, it chose to re-term its company policies and announced that it will abide by the rules of west and will store data in servers in Singapore and United States.
However, the latest research conducted by Internet 2.0 alleges TikTok for storing user generated data on servers belonging to Chinese firm Guizhou Baishan, the Cloud based Technology Company from mainland China.
It asserted its claims with evidence that is available in the white paper released by the company on July 12th,2022.
Meanwhile, as per an update available on the website of the video mending app, Roland Cloutier, the Global Chief Security Officer of TikTok, has been asked to step down from his post. But he will continue to serve at a C-Level executive position at the company for the coming years. Cloutier did not mention the reason behind his stepdown. But his close aides confirm that his resignation came in course, as he was not happy with the way the user data was being handled by the subsidiary of ByteDance.
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