Tag Archive for: TikTok

TikTok has a China problem. Here’s how to protect your data.

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TikTok is especially popular with teens.

I’ve been saying it for months: Get TikTok off your phone.

It’s not the only China-based app you need to worry about. Temu, the app that lets you “shop like a billionaire,” isn’t worth the deals.

Here’s why – and what to do if you’ve been using it.

That’s not all. Here’s a list of dangerous apps you need to delete ASAP.

If you still want to use TikTok, you can without handing over all your information to communist China.

Why not just use the app?

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How security pros use TikTok without handing over personal data to China

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I’ve been saying it for months: Get TikTok off your phone.

It’s not the only China-based app you need to worry about. Temu, the app that lets you “shop like a billionaire,” isn’t worth the deals. Here’s why — and what to do if you’ve been using it.

That’s not all. Here’s a list of dangerous apps you need to delete ASAP.

If you still want to use TikTok, you can without handing over all your information to communist China.

Why not just use the app?

Plain and simple, TikTok is a national security threat. The Chinese-owned social media platform’s parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing and is required by Chinese law to give the government access to collected data. 

TikTok collects data that includes search and browsing history, facial ID, voice prints, texts, location, and photos. 

Though government agencies and even the entire state of Montana have banned the social media app, it’s still incredibly popular — used by about two-thirds of teens in the U.S.

TikTok

A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken on Jan. 6, 2020.  (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

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What are your options?

Browsing TikTok on the web won’t cut it. There’s still a significant amount of tracking. 

Your best buy is buying a low-cost smartphone, sometimes called a burner phone. You don’t need anything fancy since this is just for social media. A super basic cheap Android phone works just fine.

Turn on the phone and set it up, but here’s the trick: Don’t link it to any of your primary accounts. 

Start fresh

Do not log into your Google account, Apple ID, company email, personal email, or anything else. Certainly, don’t give it access to any sensitive personal or financial information.

Create a new email account just for this phone — and your TikTok account. That way, even if TikTok (or any other app) collects data from your device, it won’t be tied to your actual personal information.

Of course, this phone still has a connection to you. Be careful what you share with the app or in your posts.

You can connect the burner phone to your home’s Wi-Fi, so you don’t need to…

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Opinion: Banning TikTok stifles internet innovation and freedom

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The popularity of TikTok, a Chinese-owned short-form video-sharing app, has provoked concerns among American policymakers and proposals to ban the platform. Although data exfiltration concerns are hard to dispel, the costs of banning TikTok far outweigh any benefits to national security.

TikTok isn’t a particularly unique or valuable source of American data, but it is a potent distributor of American culture. Banning TikTok would quash the voices of Americans who favor the platform and undermine the open internet that has served America so well.

Concerns about TikTok fall into two categories. Critics fear that TikTok’s algorithm could be manipulated to serve Chinese interests and that user data could be collected and misused by the Chinese Communist Party. The first concern is ably addressed by TikTok’s Project Texas, a deal with Oracle to host TikTok in America on Oracle servers, where its algorithm can be audited. The second is harder to dispel.

Like other apps, TikTok collects user information such as location and stored media. TikTok needs this data to host and serve user speech, but it can be misused. Unlike other apps, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has its headquarters in China, where it is subject to China’s National Intelligence Law. Under the law, China can require its citizens and corporations to provide data relevant to state intelligence work.

There isn’t any evidence that TikTok is spying for the CCP. ByteDance’s only demonstrable misuse of user data was to track employees leaking information to journalists. But data is leaky, and employee access is hard to police. Under the National Intelligence Law, there is always a risk that ByteDance will be compelled to share TikTok user data with the CCP.

Further, there is little reason to believe TikTok is a unique intelligence goldmine. Other apps collect similar information, TikTok is not the only Chinese app used by Americans, and much of the more sensitive information TikTok collects, such as user location, can be purchased from unscrupulous data brokers. Absent broader data protections, banning TikTok at best forces China to buy Americans’ data instead of getting it for free.

To get vital data, China has repeatedly…

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Montana governor bans TikTok. But can the state enforce the law?

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NEW YORK (AP) — Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte on Wednesday signed into law a first-of-its kind bill that makes it illegal for TikTok to operate in the state, setting up a potential legal fight with the company amid a litany of questions over whether the state can even enforce the law.

The new rules in Montana will have more far-reaching effects than TikTok bans already in place on government-issued devices in nearly half the states and the U.S. federal government. There are 200,000 TikTok users in Montana as well as 6,000 businesses that use the video-sharing platform, according to company spokesperson Jamal Brown.

Here’s what you need to know:

WHY IS MONTANA BANNING TIKTOK?

Proponents of the law in Montana claim the Chinese government could harvest U.S. user data from TikTok and use the platform to push pro-Beijing misinformation or messages to the public.

That mirrors arguments made by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Senate, as well as the heads of the FBI and the CIA, all of whom have said TikTok could pose a national security threat because its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance operates under Chinese law.

Critics have pointed to China’s 2017 national intelligence law that compels companies to cooperate with the country’s governments for state intelligence work. Another Chinese law, implemented in 2014, has similar mandates.

TikTok says it has never been asked to hand over its data, and it wouldn’t do so if asked.

HOW DOES MONTANA PLAN TO BAN TIKTOK?

The law will prohibit downloads of TikTok in the state and fine any “entity” — an app store or TikTok — $10,000 per day for each time someone accesses TikTok, “is offered the ability” to access it, or downloads it.

That means Apple and Google, which operate app stores on Apple and Android devices, would be liable for any violations. Penalties would not apply to users.

The statewide ban won’t take effect until January 2024. It would be void if the social media platform is sold to a company that is not based in “any country designated as a foreign adversary” by the federal government.

The governor indicated he wants to expand the bill to other social media apps in order to address some of the…

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