Data of American journalists found in Tik Tok
2022.12.22 14:05
Data of American journalists found in Tik Tok
Budrigannews.com – According to an email obtained by Reuters, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the well-known video app TikTok, stated on Thursday that some employees had improperly accessed the TikTok user data of two U.S. journalists in the summer and were no longer employed by the company.
According to the email sent by ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen, employees at ByteDance accessed the data in an unsuccessful attempt to identify potential connections between two journalists and company employees. The New York Times reported that the disclosure may increase the pressure TikTok is under in Washington from lawmakers and the Biden administration regarding security concerns regarding user data from the United States.
According to a person who was briefed on the situation, four ByteDance employees who were a part of the incident were let go, two from China and two from the United States. Officials from the company stated that they were further safeguarding user data.
This week, Congress is expected to pass legislation that prohibits government workers in the United States from downloading or using TikTok on government-owned devices.
“This misconduct is not at all representative of what I know our company’s principles to be,” said TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in a separate email to employees that was seen by Reuters. “These access protocols, which have already been significantly improved and hardened since this initiative took place,” he stated, “will continue to enhance these access protocols.”
“The USDS department is limiting access of that data to the USDS department and has already done so across our production systems,” Chew stated. “The USDS department is limiting access of that data to the USDS department and has already done so across our production systems.” We have been systematically cutting off access points as we finish migrating protected US user data management to the USDS department.”
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Additionally, ByteDance stated that it would separate and reorganize the global investigations function, as well as the Internal Audit and Risk Control department. An oversight council will be added to the investigation procedure, according to the company.
A national security body called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has been trying for months to come to an agreement with ByteDance to protect the data of more than 100 million TikTok users in the United States. However, it appears that no agreement will be reached before the end of the year.
