Audio By Carbonatix
TikTok is strongly pushing back against a Forbes report alleging that its parent company wanted to use the video app to “monitor the personal location of some specific American citizens.”
In a series of tweets, TikTok accused Forbes of leaving off a vital part of its statement, which says that “TikTok does not collect precise GPS location information from US users,” despite the article’s claims that its parent company ByteDance considered obtaining “location data from U.S. users’ devices.”
The article, posted earlier on Thursday, said that ByteDance’s Internal Audit team — usually tasked with keeping an eye on those who currently work for the company or who have worked for the company in the past — planned on surveilling at least two Americans who “had never had an employment relationship with the company.”
Forbes says its report was based on materials it reviewed but did not include details about who was potentially going to be tracked or why ByteDance was planning on tracking them, claiming that doing so may put its sources at risk.
%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24128208%2FScreenshot_2022_10_20_at_17.49.32.png&w=2400&q=75)
Forbes’ article says that TikTok and ByteDance didn’t answer questions about whether the internal audit team had ever targeted US politicians, activists, public figures, or journalists, and compared the alleged plan to Uber’s “greyball” program that targeted specific users, in some cases serving regulators a misleading version of the app.
In its thread, TikTok says the app has “never been used to ‘target’” anyone in those groups and that it doesn’t change the in-app experience for those people. (It’s worth noting that’s not an absolute denial of any consideration for specific targeting or that a request was ever made — TikTok’s only saying its app has not been used for that purpose.) The company says that the audit team “follows set policies and processes to acquire information they need to conduct internal investigations.”
It also claims that anyone caught doing what Forbes alleged in the article would be fired.
The security of TikTok data has been a broadly-cited concern about the platform for years, especially for US lawmakers concerned about the Chinese government’s access to data about US citizens. After a June report from BuzzFeed News alleged that US user data had been accessed from China, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote a letter to Republican critics addressing how the company planned to keep American user data separate from ByteDance.
Latest Stories
-
Morocco and Senegal set for defining AFCON final under Rabat lights today
1 hour -
Trump tariff threat over Greenland ‘unacceptable’, European leaders say
2 hours -
Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira MP kicks against VALCO sale
2 hours -
Mercy Johnson withdraws alleged defamation case against TikToker
3 hours -
Ghana accepted Trump’s deported West Africans and forced them back to their native countries
3 hours -
No evidence of theft in Unibank Case – A‑G explains withdrawal of charges against Dr Duffour
4 hours -
Labourer remanded for threatening to kill mother
4 hours -
Court remands farmer over GH¢110,000 car fraud
4 hours -
Tension mounts at Akyem Akroso over ‘sale’ of royal cemetery
4 hours -
Poor planning fueling transport crisis—Prof. Beyuo
5 hours -
Ahiagbah slams Prof. Frimpong-Boateng over “fake” party slur
5 hours -
Family traumatised as body of Presby steward goes ‘missing’ at mortuary
6 hours -
Why Ghana must maintain the NPA’s price floor in the petroleum market
6 hours -
Serwaa Amihere apologises to PRESEC community over ‘homosexual breeding ground’ comment
7 hours -
Dr Arthur Kennedy slams NPP’s “dubious” plot to expel Prof Frimpong-Boateng
7 hours
