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The relentless pressure on TikTok increased further this week, with United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again claiming that user data is being sent to China. “It is not possible for your personal information to flow through a Chinese server,” he warned during a British outlet. interview, suggesting that the data “would end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party,” that he characterized like an “evil empire”. TikTok is firmly in the sights of the Trump administration, and they are not giving in.
But now, while TikTok continues to deny US allegations of data abuse, of it bowing to pressure from Beijing, a new report Cyber experts at ProtonMail have questioned those denials. “Be careful,” he warns, “the social media giant not only collects treasures of personal data about you, but also cooperates with the CCP, extending the scope of China’s surveillance and censorship beyond its borders.”
The world of TikTok is now dominated by speculation on whether the United States will find any way to ban the application, cutting off access to tens of millions of American users and halting the progressive growth of TikTok. The week had started with the confirmation of a ban on federal employees installing the app on government-issued devices seen by many as precursors to some form of broader action by the Trump administration. Now we also know how such a ban would work.—TikTok would be added to a list of Commerce Department entities, in the same way that Huawei has been sanctioned.
With each passing week, it becomes increasingly critical to remind us of what we know and what we don’t know. Yes, TikTok is a potential threat to the west, insofar as it is a Chinese-owned app now installed on hundreds of millions of devices. In a world where Facebook data has supposedly facilitated so much damage to political processes, so much manipulation and disinformation, assuming that TikTok carries no serious threat is woefully naive.
But with that said, the charges of data exfiltration and “espionage” are technical, they are binary, they can be proven one way or another. And this is where the rhetoric meets a reality check. Regardless, there is no strong evidence that TikTok sends data to China, there is no solid evidence that the information is pulled from users’ devices beyond the typical data intrusions of all social media platforms.
When TikTok is asked about the claims to the contrary, he is noted for the lack of evidence, the missing smoking gun. There is no evidence, he says, it is a political campaign immersed in the confrontation between Washington and Beijing. “There is a lot of misinformation about TikTok,” the company tells me, pointing to its US CEO and CISO “with decades of US military and police experience, and a US team working diligently to develop a better class security infrastructure. ” The company also ensures that data from the U.S. Never travel to China
But the warning from ProtonMail cybersecurity analysts this week is not a political score – these are former CERN security engineers. TikTok’s “enthusiastic data collection”, the company warns, “its use of Chinese infrastructure and its parent company’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party make it a perfect tool for mass surveillance and data collection by part of the Chinese government. “
ProtonMail says it reviewed the “data collection policies, lawsuits, cybersecurity documents, past security vulnerabilities and its privacy policy,” and concluded that “we found that TikTok is a serious privacy threat that likely shares data with the Chinese government. ” We recommend that everyone approach TikTok with great caution, especially if their threat model includes questionable use of their personal data or surveillance by the Chinese government. “
ProtonMail also cites a white paper published by Penetrum earlier this year, he warned that “37.70% of known IP addresses tied to TikTok are Chinese,” and he described the “excessive amount of data collection, vulnerabilities in TikTok code, as well as some things that may make you feel awkward pretty. “
TikTok defends its defense and tells me that “millions of American families use TikTok for entertainment and creative expression, which we recognize is not what the federal government’s devices are for. Our American CEO, our CISO … our entire growing American team, which has tripled since the beginning of the year, have no higher priority than promoting a secure application experience that protects the privacy of our users. That is our approach. “
ProtonMail’s conclusion about TikTok is quite clear: “The fact that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, one that has explicitly said it would deepen its cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party, makes this excessive data collection even more worrying. The Chinese government has a history of heavily arming and co-opting Chinese technology companies to share their data and then use it to intimidate, threaten, censor, or commit human rights abuses. “
The Swiss-based company warns TikTok users that “from a security and privacy point of view, TikTok is an extremely dangerous social media platform. Its potential for mass data collection from hundreds of millions of adults, adolescents, and children poses a serious privacy risk. “And his advice to those users is to proceed” with great caution … and if this concerns you, you should consider delete TikTok and its associated data. “
And so another week ends, and TikTok continues to be caught in this whirlpool of Sino-American policy and security controversy. A ban or sanctions of some sort seem increasingly likely with each passing week, and America’s rhetoric has found an audience with other Hawkish politicians around the world. As things stand, ByeDance, the owner of TikTok, has gone from leading the social media world to contemplating selling its award-winning asset to American investors in just a few short weeks.
However, the real problem for TikTok is that there doesn’t need to be a smoking security gun for the US and its allies to have a credible excuse to sanction and restrict the platform. China is an adversary state for the United States, the United Kingdom and its allies. There They are Reasons to believe that Beijing could exert influence over TikTok’s father, ByteDance. That should be reason enough to act, and it seems increasingly likely that it is.
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