TikTok’s efforts to address US data privacy concerns may have holes. Self-proclaimed whistleblower Chatting To Washington Post It says Project Texas, a social network plan to protect the data of US users, is deeply flawed. A former member of the Trust and Safety team claims the $1.5 billion initiative will allow TikTok to connect to Toutiao, parent company ByteDance’s famous Chinese news app. may be able to access your data. A truly secure approach would require a “complete redesign” of the service’s infrastructure, former employees say.
The staff also claims to have met with the offices of Senators Chuck Grassley and Mark Warner to discuss the alleged weaknesses. Representatives of both senators confirmed that the meeting had taken place.
We reached out to TikTok for comment.The unnamed people of the social media giant speak out post The claims are “baseless,” and Toutiao’s code is just “naming conventions and technical relics” that don’t tie the app to China. We believe this undermines claims that it can affect US business. The whistleblower was only employed for six months and supposedly left a few months before Project Texas was completed. In other words, he may not know the big picture.
TikTok has repeatedly denied cooperating with the Chinese government, and there is no publicly known evidence to show its effectiveness. His Douyin, the comparable app available within China, has completely different content.
The timing of the intended revelation isn’t good for TikTok. House and Senate bills (Warner co-sponsored the latter bill), if passed, could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban, CEO Shou Zi said. Chew is scheduled to testify before the House on March 23 to address security and child safety concerns. The report does not assuage the politician’s fears that the Chinese government will use his TikTok to collect data on Americans and spread propaganda.
