Why Tiktok Considered as the “Biggest Cyber Threat” for Security Breaches?
Why Tiktok Considered as the “Biggest Cyber Threat” for Security Breaches?
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With over 3 billion downloads and 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok is the 6th most popular social media in the world. TikTok users all over the world spend an average of 52 minutes each day and each month is 858 minutes on the platform, with 90% of users using it on a regular basis. The globe has 4.8 Billion internet users, and TikTok is used by 20.83 percent of them. Despite these, It is considered as the “Biggest Cyber Threat” for security breaches.
To understand these, we need to start from the beginning.
Evaluation of Tiktok
Evaluation of Tiktok
Tiktok is a platform where users can share short-form videos for entertainment using the app or website. The app for iOS and Android was launched internationally in 2017. Before that, it was launched locally in China by ByteDance which is a Chinese company. The local name was Douyin which means Tiktok is the global version of Douyin.
When Tiktok was launched, users were not interested in it. Because, people were already habituated to using Musical.ly on which users made and shared short lip-sync videos.
Musical.ly was launched in August, 2014 and particularly popular in the U.S. By the end of May, 2017, Musical.ly app had reached over 200 million users and tiktok was new to the users. In 2018, to expand the business, Bytedance decided to invest around $1 billion to acquire Musical.ly and merge this platform with tiktok.
After merging, ByteDance consolidated its audiences on both apps and this move was very effective to become popular overnight. After updating the musical.ly app, users saw their app switch to TikTok and they found their account, videos and personal settings inside the new app as per usual.
Gradually, it became so popular that every generation enjoyed spending time on this platform. Even celebrities and athletes like neymar, lewandowski shared their short videos and challenges videos.
But what was behind the story was that the US Govt and other countries were very concerned about Tiktok. Even countries like India, Russia banned it. So let’s dig deeper about this story that why Tiktok is considered as the “Biggest Cyber Threat”
Did Tiktok Share User Data?
Did Tiktok Share User Data?
In 2022, there were a number of news articles published in newspapers and e-newspapers.
February 8, 2022
CNBC published an article that “TikTok shares user data more than any other social media app — and it’s unclear where it goes”.
July 4, 2022
UK based newspaper Daily Mail published a column on their online news portal that TikTok confirms its China-based employees can access US user data.
BuzzFeed News published a news “Leaked Audio From 80 Internal TikTok Meetings Shows That US User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China” in July 6, 2022. Based on this news, nine US senators sent the letter with 18 questions who want answers regarding how US user data is being treated.
Based on these news we tried to figure out:
What types of User Data Tiktok Collects?
Does tiktok share user data with other parties and the Chinese Government?
To find these answers, we look into Tiktok's privacy policy and find some alarming information.
Firstly, Tiktok collects data like location, search history, IP address, the videos you watch and how long you spend watching them, mostly allowing third-party trackers to collect your data.
Secondly, on their privacy policy, Tiktok mentions that “if tiktok sell, buy, merge, are acquired by, or partner with other companies or businesses, or sell some or all of our assets. In such transactions, user information may be among the transferred assets.”
It means Tiktok can sell your data as transferred assets or transfer the data to its partners or parent companies. But the shocking fact is that the users are not aware of it. When the user installs the app and agrees to continue, he or she agrees to the privacy policies. That means users give permission to collect and share the data
Does Tiktok share user data with the Chinese Government?
Does Tiktok share user data with the Chinese Government?
It is confirmed that Tiktok collects and shares the data to its third-party. But when asked about sharing the data with the Chinese Government, they replied that they had never shared data with the Chinese government, and even they assured that information of American users was handled and accessed only by U.S.-based teams.
But when a team of BuzzFeed News got the chance to access a collection of leaked tapes from internal meetings at TikTok, they found a China based team had the access to get the data of American users and based on this hidden fact they published news about it. Then, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew agreed that they gave access to a team of China employees. But the app operates from Texas.
Their answers were contradictory which led us to research this from the beginning. After researching, we found 3 facts that will give a direction to the answers of this question.
Fact #1
In 2019, ByteDance formed joint ventures with Beijing Time, a publisher controlled by the Beijing municipal CCP committee, and with Shanghai Dongfang.
In April 2021, Cyberspace Administration of China which is a state-owned enterprise took a partial ownership stake in ByteDance's main Chinese entity and placed a government official, Wu Shugang, on its board of directors.
Fact #2
China has established a national security law, including Article 7, which compels every entities to provide information to Chinese intelligence agencies to aid its espionage for their national security efforts,
Fact #3
On August 16, 2022, Business reporter Annabelle Liang wrote on a business column of BBC News that “Chinese internet giants including Alibaba, Tiktok-owner ByteDance and Tencent have shared details of their algorithms with China's regulators for the first time.”
Based on these facts, it can easily be understood that the Chinese Government can access the user data of Tiktok. But why do they want to get access to this data?
Why does the Chinese Government want to get access to this data?
Why does the Chinese Government want to get access to this data?
China is one of the superpowers of the world and manipulates the world economy very strongly. Big countries like the USA, India, Japan and Australia are concerned about it. They formed “QUAD” which is a strategic informal forum to stop China from being the supreme power of the world and It is expected that China is not a country which sits on the chair and enjoys their strategic attacks. It is obvious that China will do its best to become the world leader.
Suranjana Tewari, who is a Asia Business Correspondent of BBC News said, “This move of the Chinese Government is about control.”
China expert and author Gordon Chang said to CBN News, "Through the control of the algorithm, China is able to influence American public opinion. We know that in 2020, the Chinese military used TikTok to incite violence on American streets. TikTok glorifies drug usage in America, and there are other things that they've been doing to interfere in our political process.”
This era is all about information. The more information one has, the more power it has. That’s why the Chinese government wants to access the data that can help to influence and control the competitors and become the superpower of the world.
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