According to internal emails obtained by The New York Times, several employees at ByteDance accessed the TikTok data for several US journalists and a small number of other people. The reporters were able to see if they had been near TikTok employees who were leaking information to the press.
The company's general council described the incident as a "misguided plan was developed and carried out by a few individuals within the Internal Audit department this past summer." According to a report from Forbes, the investigation involved the company's Chief Security and Privacy Office, was known to TikTok's head of global legal compliance, and was approved by ByteDance employees in China.
According to these reports, ByteDance employees in China have access to the TikTok data of Americans. Lawmakers are trying to restrict the app in the US. ByteDance has walked back denials in the past.
According to The New York Times, the internal audit team at ByteDance accessed the data of two journalists who worked for The Financial Times. According to Forbes, three of its journalists were tracked, one of which was Richard Nieva. According to the Financial Times, its reporter was tracked. The two reported by the New York Times would bring the total up to four.
According to the New York Times, at least two of those employees were based in China. Forbes reported in October that ByteDance was planning to use TikTok to track the location data of US citizens.
TikTok denied a Forbes report that it lacked journalistic integrity and did not collect preciseGPS data. The reporter behind the story pointed out that the company admitted to collecting approximate locations using the internet. TikTok has never been used to target any members of the U.S. government, activists, public figures or journalists, according to a statement from the company.
Forbes reported that one of those people was Chris Lepitak, who was the head of the team. According to Forbes, Song Ye was an executive in China that reported directly to the CEO.
According to the report, the employees accessed the information over the summer. We asked TikTok if it happened before or after the company started usingOracle to route US users' data, but they didn't reply immediately.
The switch was supposed to protect Americans from Chinese employees of Byte Dance. The report said that TikTok engineers overseas had access to everything and accessed US users' information. ByteDance's internal investigation was spurred on by that report. Two days before the partnership went into effect, a report was released. It would raise serious questions about the effectiveness of the program if the data was obtained after that.
When it comes to user data and privacy, TikTok and Byte Dance are under scrutiny. In the US, over a dozen states have banned TikTok on government phones, and senators like Marco Rubio are working on legislation that would make it illegal in the US. The app may give the Chinese Communist Party the ability to monitor and influence Americans.
Donald Trump tried to ban the app during his time in office. He demanded that ByteDance sell its American division to a US-based company, but that deal never came to fruition.
Alex reported on this story.
Independent confirmation of emails to ByteDance employees and details from Forbes and The Financial Times have been added.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
