Popular short-form video-sharing service TikTok is revising its privateness coverage for European customers to make it explicitly clear that person knowledge may be accessed by some workers from internationally, together with China.
The ByteDance-owned platform, which at present shops European person knowledge within the U.S. and Singapore, mentioned the revision is a part of its ongoing knowledge governance efforts to restrict worker entry to customers within the area, reduce knowledge flows outdoors of it, and retailer the data regionally.
The privateness coverage replace applies to customers positioned within the U.Ok., the European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland, and goes into impact on December 2, 2022, based on The Guardian.
“Based on a demonstrated must do their job, topic to a collection of sturdy safety controls and approval protocols, and by means of strategies which are recognised below the GDPR, we enable sure workers inside our company group positioned in Brazil, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and the U.S. distant entry to TikTok European person knowledge,” the corporate mentioned.
TikTok additional mentioned its safety controls encompass system entry restrictions, encryption, and community safety, including it would not accumulate exact location info from its customers in Europe.
The growth additionally takes place towards mounting regulatory scrutiny of the platform on either side of the Atlantic, which has over one billion month-to-month energetic customers. ByteDance has repeatedly denied it’s managed by the Chinese authorities.
In July 2022, it hit the brakes on a controversial privateness coverage replace in Europe that might have allowed it to serve focused adverts primarily based on customers’ exercise on the social video platform with out their express consent.
It has additionally confronted tough climate within the U.S., what with Brendan Carr, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling for a ban of the appliance over nationwide safety considerations that person knowledge may very well be accessed by Chinese authorities.
Last month, the corporate contested a report from Forbes {that a} China-based workforce at ByteDance deliberate to make use of the platform to trace the areas of choose U.S. residents with out their data or permission.