TikTok, which has billions of users worldwide, shook its users in the US with a privacy claim.
TikTok, which initially started its adventure in China, was recently forced to transfer its operations in the US to another company. The reason behind this pressure was that the anger between the US and China raised privacy concerns. Although it is believed that the data of TikTok users in the US is not accessed by employees in China, a privacy claim has caused panic.
Chinese hackers have already wreaked software havoc in the US and many other countries. It has always been a privacy issue, with intelligence officers working with hackers and information that could even be considered state secrets being handed to the Chinese government on a platter. If the allegations are true, the US government has new reasons to worry.
TikTok data of US users may be stored in China
TikTok is run by a company called Bytedance all over the world, but things are a little different in the US. With the legislative order issued by Donald Trump, the data of TikTok users in the US was segregated. US data would only be visible to Bytedance’s employees in the US. However, according to recent allegations, employees in China still have access to that data.
- Death toll rises in church attack
- New rights for workers in Belgium: Week vacation increases to 3 days
- After Europe, the US has taken over the charging port of iPhones!
According to some employees who spoke to Buzfeed, China had access to US data from September 2021 to January 2022. However, there are still employees who are authorized to see all the data. There is even a Chinese employee nicknamed ‘master administrator’ who has access to everything in the system. These allegations could further trigger US concerns about data security.
TikTok has so far reiterated that US data will never be shared with the Chinese government. While it is not known whether the data went to the Chinese Government, there may be some who are concerned given the repressive government in the country. But let’s look at it from a different angle, Turkish users’ data has always been visible to China. This is the situation in our country and the rest of the world.
In the future, China’s repressive policies and the cyber-fear it inflicts on other countries may push other countries to take decisions similar to those of the United States. It is too early to say that there will be a TikTok ban in our country, but let’s not forget that TikTok is not as reliable as other social media platforms.
