What you need to know about how TikTok could compromise your security

Apprehension rises around how TikTok uses data. Should you be concerned? Image by Mrinalini Keskar.

China-based app TikTok has been under national security review concerning Chinese intelligence abroad. Security experts say that the app could be storing data on millions of American citizens.

TikTok, a largely popular app worldwide, has been downloaded over 1.5 billion times globally.

CGS students report on their TikTok usage. Image by Mrinalini Keskar

In a survey sent March 6, 2020, 59 students responded to share how they use TikTok. Almost 50% of the Catlin Gabel School students who responded reported to use TikTok for up to two hours everyday.

When asked to comment on possible security threats of TikTok, most students were unaware of the recent concern surrounding it.

Sophomore Aidan Sheeran-Hahnel proves to be indifferent towards any concern. “I use TikTok because some of the content is entertaining. I’ve heard that they’re selling my data to China or something, but it’s not going to affect me at all,” he said.

In 2017, Chinese-owned company ByteDance bought American app Musical.ly for almost $1 billion, rebranding it into TikTok. Since then, the app has evolved into one of the top downloaded apps on the app store, allowing mostly teens to share short videos.

TikTok’s security main concerns revolve around two things: censorship and data mining.

Rising apprehension surrounds TikTok’s censoring of content from around the world that does not align with the Communist Party of China (CPC) or the Chinese government.

In a letter to Secretary of State Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio requested a review on TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

“There continues to be ample and growing evidence that TikTok’s platform for Western markets, including those in the U.S., is censoring content that is not in line with the Chinese government,” Rubio wrote.

Report-based evidence states that TikTok moderators have been instructed to remove videos including sensitive subjects such as Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong protests, or religious group Falun Gong.

In December 2019, college student Misty Hong filed a class-action lawsuit against TikTok, in which it stated that the app gathers various data, including biometric, from its users, and sends the data to China. Biometric data includes names, demographics, and facial recognition.

It’s well known that many U.S. apps collect data on Americans to sell, but concern lies around TikTok using global data for a bigger, unknown reason.

However, the U.S. branch of ByteDance is said to have hired consulting firm Special Counsel to investigate where user data from TikTok goes.

Douglas Brush, the leader of the investigation, Douglas Brush stated that Special Counsel was unable to find proof of TikTok sending user data to China.

After this report, ByteDance has since commented via a spokesperson.

“In TikTok’s early days we took a blunt approach to minimising conflict on the platform, and our moderation guidelines allowed penalties to be given for things like content that promoted conflict. As TikTok began to take off globally last year, we recognised that this was not the correct approach, and began working to empower local teams that have a nuanced understanding of each market,” said the ByteDance spokesperson.

For the average American teen using the app, the main security concern is how their data, including location, names, videos, and birthdate information, is used.

As TikTok becomes more and more a part of daily lives for teens, and while a security threat seems mostly to be unknown, it is essential for teens to employ basic online safety tactics. These include keeping accounts private, and not sharing sensitive or personal information online.