June 26, 2023
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has admitted that it stores some of its U.S, user data in China. The company said that this data includes contracts and related documents for creators who make paid content on the app.
The revelation comes after concerns were raised about the security of TikTok’s data, given that China has strict national security laws that could allow the government to access data from Chinese companies. Despite previous claims that all data was stored on American servers, the company acknowledged in a letter that “certain creator data” is stored in China.
TikTok said that it has not been asked by the Chinese government to share this data, and that it would not do so. “TikTok has not been asked for this data by the Chinese government or the CCP. TikTok has not provided such data to the Chinese government or CCP, nor would TikTok do so,” says a statement from ByteDance.
However, US Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal said that they were “extremely concerned” about TikTok’s decision to store US user data in China. “This is a major security risk,” they said. “We call on TikTok to immediately move all US user data to the United States.”
The sources for this piece include an article in Telegraph.
