Privacy Security In response to nine Republican senators, TikTok confirmed that some employees in China can access U.S. user data. Unsplash
TikTok has confirmed that some employees can access from China the data of users who are in the United States. The company responded to a letter sent by nine Republican senators, following the publication of the BuzzFeed News report. In late June, a member of the FCC asked Google and Apple to remove the app from the stores for violating the privacy policy. TikTok promises data security Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, writes in the response letter that the BuzzFeed News article contains incorrect information not supported by the facts. The only exact thing concerns Project Texas started to improve data security and which will have to receive approval from the US government. As recently announced, all U.S. user data is now stored on Oracle's servers. However, the CEO confirms that some employees outside the United States can access user data. This is done on the basis of robust security controls and authorization protocols. With Project Texas, security measures will be further strengthened to allow access to "protected" data only to authorized personnel, following the protocols developed by the US government. From the answer provided by the CEO it is therefore clear that access to (non-sensitive) data of US users will continue despite being stored on Oracle's servers. This is necessary to ensure the quality of service. Senator Marsha Blackburn, one of the signatories of the letter sent to TikTok, said: TikTok's response confirms our fears. The Chinese company should have been clear from the start, but it tried to hide its work in secret. Americans need to know if they are on TikTok, Communist China has their information.