TikTok is being sued for allegedly sending USA user data to China

Share:

What's especially alarming is that the plaintiff says though she downloaded the TikTok app in March or April of 2019, she never actually created a TikTok account.

As Reuters reports, the lawsuit alleges TikTok "vacuumed up and transferred to servers in China vast quantities of private and personally identifiable user data".

More news: 'Misleading' Deliveroo ad banned after attracting 300 complaints

The class-action lawsuit was filed the day before Thanksgiving in California federal court, The Daily Beast said Monday. The app is owned by Beijing-based firm ByteDance but has quickly built up a large U.S. user base, primarily of young people. According to the complaint, the publisher ByteDance would collect user content like unpublished videos without the consent of users and rely on very ambiguous terms around privacy. According to court documents cited by the media outlet, TikTok is primarily accused of amassing huge amounts of personal data without user consent, and transferring that data directly to servers in China. She alleges that months later TikTok had created an account for her on the app and "surreptitiously" took draft videos that she had created but not published on the app. TikTok removed the video once it went viral and later claimed it was by mistake.

Information gleaned from the accounts include facial scans, birthdays, phone and social network contacts, browsing history and more, according to the suit.

More news: Samoa shutting down all services as death toll rises

In particular, Hong's lawsuit claims that between recording a video and posting it on TikTok, an alleged intermediary stage saves the video and transfers the unposted video file to the ByteDance servers without user permission.

TikTok, which is thought to have about half a billion active users worldwide, has previously said it does not store USA data on Chinese servers.

More news: Pakistani magnate delivers $ 244 million to resolve United Kingdom corruption investigation

TikTok has repeatedly said that the Chinese government has no access to the company's user information, because the social media giant reportedly stores US user data in Virginia, with some backup in Singapore. "Given these concerns, we ask that the Intelligence Community conduct an assessment of the national security risks posed by TikTok and other China-based content platforms operating in the USA and brief Congress on these findings". Currently, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is facing pressure from the US Government, facing an investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Share:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

RELATED NEWS

Indian Idol 11: It's OFFICIAL! Himesh Reshammiya Replaces Anu Malik As Judge
The music composer was seen posing with the judges, the special guests and the contestants of Indian Idol 11 . It is not only one of India's longest running singing reality shows but also one of the most iconic ones.
12/04/2019

Ghana's Jeffery Schlupp Scores Again As Crystal Palace Pip Bournemouth
FREE TO PLAY: Don't miss your likelihood to land the £250,000 jackpot for the fifth time this yr. Palace nearly made it 2-0 when James McArthur's dipping shot was turned away by Ramsdale.
12/04/2019

'Medevac' law: Australia denies medical evacuations for refugees
Similarly, Christian social justice movement Common Grace said it was "time for medical ethics to take precedence over politics". A Greens senator, Nick McKim, mentioned the vote was "a darkish day for nearly all of Australians who assist the medevac laws".
12/04/2019

China wants United States tariffs rolled back in phase one trade deal
In early trade, Hong Kong and Shanghai both rose 0.4 percent, while Sydney added 0.5 percent and Seoul gained 0.3 percent. Another survey yesterday of smaller firms also showed a better-than-expected pick-up in factory activity.
12/04/2019

Amazon Braket takes on Microsoft’s quantum computing efforts
However, there's no shortage of customers wanting to experiment with the power of quantum computing, Amazon observes. Amazon certainly does not have the ambition to become the best and wants to fill in another niche with this program.
12/04/2019

New Zealand spinner Jeetan Patel links with England team as coach
Patel has amassed as many as 473 first-class wickets for the county and remains committed to playing one more season next year. Patel has a fair amount of knowledge of English conditions as well, having played for Warwickshire.
12/04/2019

James Harden scores 60 points in 31 minutes vs Hawks
Harden finished with 60 points to reach the mark for the fourth time and tie Jordan. "Name another player who could do that". Trae Young led the Hawks with 37 points and had five 3-pointers, but it wasn't almost enough to offset Harden's game.
12/04/2019

Halo: Reach will support mods for its single-player campaign
At the time of writing, the game had crossed 160k peak concurrent players and it was fourth in the list on Steam Stats . It revolves around the story of Master Chief John-117 who is a supersoldier belonging to a group codenamed as Spartans.
12/04/2019

‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ sequel could hit PS5 even sooner than we expected
A new rumor suggests that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 from Insomniac Games is targeting a Christmas 2021 release window. In fact, Kahn revealed that the title could be swinging onto Sony's upcoming console as early as Christmas 2021.
12/04/2019

Gamecock volleyball earns back-to-back NCAA tournament berths
Friday, with the victor advancing to face the victor of the other first-round contest between Nebraska and Ball State at 7 p.m. In 2018, SC advanced to the second round , defeating Colorado in the first round before falling to No. 2 seed Minnesota.
12/04/2019

Russian Federation pledges a response to Germany's 'unfriendly' diplomatic expulsions
The victim in that attack was also approached by a man on a bicycle who shot him in the back of the head. A Russian official condemned the move as "Russophobic hysteria" and did not rule out a reciprocal move.
12/04/2019

The Rock opens up on painful divorce
The December / January issue of the magazine will be published on the kiosk on 14th December. Johnson also has an 18-year-old daughter, Simone , from his marriage to Garcia.
12/04/2019

Roger Federer Head on a coin
The face of the 20-time Grand Slam victor will be minted on the silver coin, which is expected to be issued on January 23, 2020. Federer fanatics can purchase the uncirculated coin for CHF30 ($30) from December 2-19 through the Swissmint internet site.
12/04/2019

Robert De Niro defends Anna Paquin's seven-word role in 'The Irishman'
De Niro told USA Today in an interview published on November 29, 2019, that the actress delivered a good performance. Her anger boils over, and they share a tense exchange in their living room.
12/04/2019

Roger that: Federer's face to be minted on Swiss coin
Swissmint has occasionally introduced commemorative coins celebrating Swiss historical events, people and organisations. The government says a limited edition of up to 95,000 Federer coins can be ordered, costing 30 Swiss francs.
12/04/2019