TikTok is an insanely popular social media platform with millions of active users. As a matter of fact, around 19 million users had downloaded Tiktok in the US in just the first quarter of 2022. Brendan Carr, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner has now written to Apple and Google, asking them to completely ban Tiktok from their respective app stores. Well, Brendan fears that TikTok is leaking sensitive user data to Beijing. Carr stated that, “It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data”. He further added that, TikTok doesn’t just see its user’s dance videos. It collects search and browsing histories, keystroke patterns, biometric identifiers, draft messages, and metadata, plus it has collected the text, images, and videos that are stored on a device’s clipboard. According to him, TikTok is almost a “sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.” If you’re interested feel free to check out his entire letter here,
It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing. I’ve called on @Apple & @Google to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices. pic.twitter.com/Le01fBpNjn — Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) June 28, 2022 In his letter, Carr also talked about India. Stating that, India the world’s largest democracy has already banned TikTok on national security grounds for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data in an unauthorized manner. Furthermore, Multiple U.S. military branches have also banned TikTok from government-issued devices due to national security risks, including the Navy, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps. You might remember that President Trump also attempted to ban TikTok a few years ago. At the time of writing this article, there’s no certainty whether TikTok will get banned in the US or not.
