CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify in a Congressional hearing on Thursday, when he will make the case that banning the app would hurt its 150 million American users.īy subscribing, you are agreeing to Engadget's Terms and Privacy Policy.Įlsewhere, a new report in Forbes highlighted other issues that a nationwide ban may not fully resolve. The company is currently grappling with the threat of a nationwide ban in the United States if parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest its stake in the service. The report underscores how, even with bans in place, governments are finding it difficult to disentangle themselves from TikTok completely. Like Maryland, Utah has also banned TikTok from government devices. Likewise, TikTok’s pixel was also found on a website run by Utah's Department of Workforce Services, which told The Wall Street Journal the pixel was used for an ad campaign targeting job seekers. In Maryland’s case, the TikTok pixels were reportedly found on a state-run COVID website and were related to an ad campaign from last year. While these types of tools are extremely common - tracking pixels help online advertisers target their ads - their use has also been widely criticized by privacy advocates. According to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, it’s one of several states that used TikTok’s tracking pixel on a government website despite a statewide ban barring TikTok-related software from official devices and networks.Īccording to the report, Maryland was one of 27 states that had code for TikTok’s tracking pixel embedded in an official government website. ourselves from TikTok is more complicated than simply banning the app, just ask the state of Maryland. I’ve called on & to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices. It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing. TikTok’s Beckerman said at the hearing that they “liked” the bill’s approach but that it should include a better way to verify age across the internet. Among other things, the legislation would prohibit platforms from collecting personal information of users ages 13-15 without their consent and would limit the collection of personal information from teens. on whether they would support the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act. In October, a Senate hearing led by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) grilled TikTok’s Michael Beckerman - along with execs from YouTube-parent Google and SnapChat owner Snap Inc. Several months after taking office, President Joe Biden rescinded Trump’s executive order, saying instead that the White House was reviewing potential national security concerns over apps controlled by China. A consortium including Oracle and Walmart emerged as the buyer, but TikTok and ByteDance successfully challenged the executive order in court. operations to a U.S.-led concern or risk having its app taken offline. In 2020, Trump issued an executive order forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. Officials in his administration viewed the app as a security liability and a tool for Chinese authorities to use to glean sensitive information from Americans. government during Donald Trump’s presidency. The collection of users’ data landed TikTok on the hot seat with the U.S. in 2017, several years after ByteDance was formed. “Everything is seen in China,” a TikTok official said in the recordings, despite the fact that TikTok has repeatedly represented that the data it gathers about Americans is stored in the United States.”Ĭarr notes that the app was downloaded from the Apple App Stores and Google App store “nearly 19 million times in the first quarter of this year alone.” ByteDance said in September that TikTok topped 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.įueled by an architecture that promotes sharing across other apps, TikTok caught on with younger users because of its catchy mix of quick cutting, music and creative expression. users downloaded the app through you app stores. “Through leaked audio recordings, last week’s Buzzfeed News report revealed that ByteDance officials in Beijing have repeatedly accessed the sensitive data that TikTok has collected from Americans after those U.S. “TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance - an organization that is beholden to the Communist Party of China and required by Chinese law to comply with the PRC’s surveillance demands,” he wrote in the letter. He added: “I’ve called on Apple & Google to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices.”Ĭarr’s letter notes that the app “collects vast troves” of sensitive data from its “millions” of American users. How TikTok Is Fueling Hollywood Marketing Campaigns Like Sony's Epic Pitch For 'Spider Man: No Way Home'
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