US Officials Warned against Using TikTok for Security Reasons

The United States has always been critical about TikTok, but this week US officials have stepped up their warnings about the potential security risks involving the fast-growing, Chinese-owned TikTok, as US lawmakers have already unveiled legislation to ban the social media app from the government devices.

During a Senate hearing, security officials from Home Security, the Justice Department, and the FBI have said that the video-sharing app could become another tool that is being exploited by the intelligence services in China.

Josh Hawley, the Senator who convened the Senate hearing said he is going to introduce a bill to ban TikTok from all US government devices, as he said, “it is a major security risk for the American people.”

TikTok, which is most popular among teens has become the most downloaded app across the world last year. The US officials have expressed their concern over its connections with the government in Beijing.

During the Senate hearing, Clyde Wallace from the FBI’s cyber division said, “TikTok is one example of an application where the average citizen doesn’t understand the implications of what is behind it. It is basically controlled by a state-sponsored actor.”

Though various data points collected by TikTok may not initially seem sensitive Wallace said the information gathered might be aggregated and used for many purposes later by any agency. 

During his written testimony, Wallace also wrote Chinese-owned social media applications that might collect personal data such as biometrics, location data, contact lists, bank and credit card details. As he said, “Any and all data can be transferred to other locations and associated entities to include the Chinese parent company.”

Bryan Ware, a cyber security expert associated with the Department of Homeland Security also echoed the same fear, saying that TikTok data could become a part of the large database exploited by China.

Ware said, “China has amazing programs in the collection of data and developing artificial intelligence and analytics against that data for purposes that we don't fully know and that should give us great concern. There is certainly no place for applications like TikTok on government devices and government networks.”

Adam Hickey, associated with the Justice Department’s security division, has said: “the aggregation of data from TikTok, makes the job of intelligence agencies easier either to recruit or to hack into systems used by government employees.”

 

Meanwhile, TikTok is stuck to its stand and once again said that its operations are not influenced by the Beijing authorities.