A representative of the US Federal Communications Commission asked Apple and Google to remove the TikTok app from their App Store and Google Play Store online stores.

In a letter to Apple CEOs on Twitter, Tim Cook and from Google, Sundar Pichaicommissioner, Brendan Carr, writes that Tiktok “is characterized by a national security risk Because of the volume of data it collects, along with the apparent ease with which Beijing accesses that data.”

Carr claims that Google and Apple allowed Tiktok to do this because their rules “follow a pattern of behavior that facilitates access by users in Beijing to the data of those in the United States.”

However, a Google representative declined to comment and discussed Carr’s letterThere are also no announcements from Tiktok or Apple representatives.

“TikTok is not what it seems on the surface,” Curry wrote to Cook and Pichai. “It’s not just an app for sharing videos or funny memes. This is sheep’s clothing. At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that collects large amounts of personal and sensitive data. “

TikTok appears to have been collecting information from US users

Tiktok is currently in the hands of a Chinese company ByteDance. Earlier this month, sources said that based on 80 audios obtained from internal Tiktok meetings of ByteDance’s company engineers in China. May have accessed user data from the United States between September 2021 and January 2022.

Additionally, Tiktok employees in the United States have no way or permission to to access the data, And they have to trust the Chinese workers to do it.

In response, a Tiktok spokesperson commented: “We know we are among the most heavily vetted platforms in terms of security, and we are working hard to clear any doubts that may exist about US user data. That’s why we hire experts Cyber ​​protectioni We are constantly working to validate our security standards, Bringing in a third party to test and verify our protections.

On the same day, this information was released, Tiktok announced that “100% of US traffic is routed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructures.” Instead of being stored in our own data centers in the United States and Singapore.

Tiktok is on the radar of both current presidents, Joe BidenLike the previous president, Donald Trump, About privacy and national security.

The Trump administration has given Tiktok a deadline to find a buyer from the United States or it will be banned from the country, but after several unsuccessful meetings and dialogues. Microsoft i OracleDates passed and The United States government has not acted on it.

In the case of the Biden team, they proposed new regulations earlier this year that would give the United States government more surveillance powers over apps that might threaten the country’s national security, as is the case with Tiktok.

Continue reading