TikTok has been noted for downplaying its connection with ByteDance and for eschewing specific questions about the nature of TikTok's relationship with ByteDance and ByteDance's relationship with the Chinese government. However, multiple reports claim that there is little functional separation between TikTok and its parent because Beijing-based executives and internal company software developed by ByteDance are heavily involved in TikTok's operations. TikTok says that since May 2020, a CEO based in the United States has been responsible for making important decisions for the business. The Economist, Reuters, and Financial Times have described the Chinese government's stake as a golden share investment. In April 2021, a state-owned enterprise owned by the Cyberspace Administration of China and China Media Group, the China Internet Investment Fund, purchased a 1% stake in ByteDance's main Chinese entity. TikTok Ltd owns four entities that are based respectively in the United States, Australia (which also runs the New Zealand business), United Kingdom (also owns subsidiaries in the European Union), and Singapore (owns operations in Southeast Asia and India). Its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, is owned by founders and Chinese investors (20%), other global investors (60%), and employees (20%). TikTok Ltd was incorporated in the Cayman Islands and is based in both Singapore and Los Angeles. Several countries have restricted or banned the use of TikTok due to national security concerns that user data could be collected by the Chinese government, children's safety, addictiveness, terrorism toxic content, misinformation, and mental health. TikTok's popularity has resulted in the platform having an increasing cultural impact worldwide. Cloudflare ranked TikTok the most popular website of 2021, surpassing Google. Morning Consult named TikTok the third-fastest growing infotech brand of 2020, after Zoom and Peacock. In October 2020, TikTok surpassed 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide. Since their launches, TikTok and Douyin have gained global popularity. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 3 seconds to 10 minutes. So, let's say, you know, somebody that works in law enforcement or national security, there's a risk of things like doxing where the identities of people that work in specialized areas are effectively conveyed.TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin ( Chinese: 抖音 pinyin: Dǒuyīn: Shaking sound), is a short-form video hosting service owned by ByteDance. They're also using what's in your profile, your contacts and other kinds of files and data. “This is how a lot of attacks end up occurring, where you can guess somebody's username and password by what they're inputting on their phone or how they're inputting detail into the URL or the browser or the application,” said Stamper.Īs for the risk to national security, Stamper said, ”It's not just your information that they're collecting. Software Engineer Felix Krause recently shared images on Twitter stating, “TikTok, when opening any website in their app, injects tracking code that can monitor all keystrokes, including passwords, and all taps.” He told CBS 8 that he’s not saying that TikTok does do that, but he’s saying that it could. That's a euphemism for keystroke logging,” Stamper said. Perhaps the most nefarious data you might be handing over, he says, is the keystroke patterns or rhythms TikTok says it may collect. “Keystroke patterns and rhythms. “The way the terms of services are written, they know your files, they know your data, they know your contacts," he added. "You're effectively giving them everything that you have on your phone and they can use it for whatever purposes that they decide,” Stamper said. Stamper says while you may have ignored all of the warnings until now, it's important to know what you're allowing TikTok to potentially access, including your IP address, geolocation related data, browsing and search history, your IP address, mobile carrier, model of your device, device system, and app and file names. It has elements within its terms of service that allow TikTok to share the information collected with anybody and everybody that they choose to up to and including potentially agencies within the Chinese government,” he continued. “It is, from my perspective, a clear and present danger in terms of the amount of data that is collected.
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