Colorado Senator Michael Bennet is not the first lawmaker to ask for companies to ban TikTok from their stores.
On Thursday, Sen. Bennet, a Democrat who works on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a formal letter to Apple and Google. In his letter, he requested for the companies' respective CEOs, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai to act on the immediate removal of the app.
Senator's Protest
Sen. Bennet claims that "TikTok, in its current form, is an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States." He continues by saying that at least 27 state governments have already passed full or partial bans on the said application.
Aside from the hundred million American users, who linger around the app every day, he worries about the data that is going to be collected from the United States. Sen. Bennet says that the combination of TikTok's reach, aggressive data collection, and obligations under Chinese law is a threat to security.
He mentions that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, could "use its influence to advance Chinese government interests," using TikTok. He is concerned about the information that could be used including faceprints and voiceprints of American users. Another point of Sen. Bennet comes from the defense that Chinese law obligates ByteDance to assist and cooperate with state-related work.
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TikTok and Its Defense
TikTok in its natural sense gathers user information via cookies and other trackers. This is even before your sign up on the app. Once you've created an account, it then collects data about your activities and preferences based on what you consume. Not just that, but it also has access to your location, IP address, searches, messages, videos, and for how long have you been watching a content. These are all important for their algorithm to define which videos should appear on your main page.
Still, TikTok has long dismissed allegations about data breaches and targeting of the United States. It often reiterates that it doesn't aim to capture any American members whether they're the government, activists, public figures, or journalists. It also states that they only produce the same content experience for all its consumers.
TikTok also acted upon the accusations by partnering with Oracle to secure U.S. users' data. This further assures the U.S. government that leaking of information to the Chinese government is no longer possible given that Oracle is being operated under Silicon Valley.
Apple and Google haven't responded to the requests for them to comment. On the other hand, TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew is set to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The goal of his attendance is to discuss the application's privacy measures, its impact on kids, and its connection with China. He is set to testify on the 23rd day of March.
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