Dictac has been accused of sharing users’ information with China

The social networking site TikTok has been accused in the United States of sharing personal information of its users with Chinese authorities.

According to the “BuzzFeed” site, the leak of internal records suggests that data from US Internet users could be accessed from China. TikTok, a subsidiary of BytreDance, has always stated that it will not transfer or consult any of its users’ data to China.

According to a compilation of 80 audio recordings of in-house meetings released on June 17 by the American media BuzzFeed, the engineers received access from China. For information from US users, at least between September 2021 and January 2022. This situation happens “more often than previously reported”.

Consulted by BuzzFeed, the audios reveal a presence “Chief Executive” Will be in Beijing “Access to Everything”. “Everything seems to be in China”, A member of the Department of Defense and the Department of Defense said in an audio file. BuzzFeed did not release the names of those involved.

According to a report by eight employees, U.S. employees had to return to their Chinese colleagues to find out how their fellow citizens’ data was circulating because they were not allowed to access it.

Dictac has been in talks with the Foreign Investment Group in the United States for two years. “Project Texas”It aims to protect user data in the United States from possible intrusion by Chinese authorities.

Therefore, all personal information such as phone numbers and birthdays should be stored exclusively on a secure server in Texas managed by the US cloud company Oracle.

In the analysis of logs, a significant amount of additional information, such as BuzzFeed public videos and comments under posts, is not stored on these protected servers, but on a server in Virginia owned by TikTok.

This may leave the Beijing-based parent company with optional access. However, this data makes it possible to establish an accurate profile of a user, even if they are not sensitive.

By his side, TicTac has announced that it has changed the storage location of users’ information “100% US Transport” Oracle goes through the servers, Their old data centers in the US and Singapore will act as backups in the event of an event.

“Physical location does not matter if data from China is still accessible”, BuzzFeed Adam Segal, Digital Policy and Cyberspace Program, told US Think tank on Foreign Relations. According to him, allowing employees in China to access this information should take the risk of ending up in the hands of their government.

TikTok responded to BuzzFeed revelations “Being one of the most visited sites” and “to dispel all doubts about the security of its US users’ data”.