According to a media report, amid political and regulatory concerns about Chinese access to user information on the site, TikTok is spelling out for its European users of the platform that their data will be accessed by employees outside the continent, including China. can go.
The Guardian reported that the Chinese-owned social video app is updating its privacy policy to confirm that employees in countries including China are allowed access to user data to ensure that their experience of the platform ” consistent, enjoyable and safe”.
Other countries where European user data can be accessed by TikTok employees include Brazil, Canada and Israel, as well as the US and Singapore, where European user data is currently stored, the report said.
Ellen Fox, TikTok’s Head of Privacy in Europe, said: “Based on a demonstrated need to perform our work, subject to a series of robust security controls and approval protocols, and through methods recognized under the GDPR. [the EU’s general data protection regulation]We allow remote access to TikTok European user data to certain employees of our corporate group located in Brazil, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and the United States.
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The data can be used to check on aspects of the platform, including the performance of its algorithms, which recommend content to users, and detect annoying automated accounts. TikTok has previously acknowledged that some user data is accessed in China by employees of the company’s parent, ByteDance.
In a letter to Republican senators that was disclosed in July, TikTok’s chief executive, Shaw Xie Chew, said “a narrow set of non-sensitive” US user data can be viewed by foreign employees if US-based TikTok is protected by security. is approved by the team. He said no data had been shared with Chinese government officials, The Guardian reported.
The privacy policy update, which applies to the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, and which goes live on 2 December, comes against a backdrop of political and regulatory pressure over the use of data generated by the app, of which there is more worldwide One billion users.
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