TikTok and Oracle teamed up after all, but concerns about data privacy remain

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Friday, TikTok announced that it had begun to route American users' data to US-based server owned byOracle. TikTok employees based in China have access to US users' data over the course of at least several months, according to a report.

TikTok employees told internal staff meetings that they had to ask their colleagues in China to access US user data because they weren't able to do it themselves. One member of TikTok's trust and safety department team said that "everything is seen in China" while another said that a China-based engineer had access to everything.

The events are said to have taken place from at least September 2021.

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has been accused of exposing the data of US users to China. Donald Trump tried to force TikTok to separate its US assets from ByteDance after threatening it with a nationwide ban.

TikTok didn't really sell its US assets, but it did discuss teaming up with an American company. After President Joe Biden took office, the deal seemed to be on its last legs, but reappeared in March with reports of a project called Project Texas.

The initiative refers to the Texas headquarters of Oracle and is meant to keep US users' data out of China. TikTok has announced that it will be moving toOracle's server.

The head of TikTok's US security and public policy wrote that the company has been working with Oracle for more than a year to better safeguard its app, systems, and the security of US user data. The majority of US user traffic is going to the cloud.

The company says that it will use its Virginia and Singapore-based server for backups, but it will also try to get rid of users' private data from these server in order to move to the US. It is not clear when TikTok will make a complete shift toOracle's server.

There is more we can do. We aim to remove any doubts about the security of US user data by being among the most scrutinized platforms.