Leaked Audio From 80 Internal TikTok Meetings Shows That US User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China 54
Speaking of TikTok moving US users' data to Oracle, a new report says that ByteDance staff in China accessed US TikTok users' data between September 2021 and January 2022. From the report: For years, TikTok has responded to data privacy concerns by promising that information gathered about users in the United States is stored in the United States, rather than China, where ByteDance, the video platform's parent company, is located. But according to leaked audio from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings, China-based employees of ByteDance have repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users -- exactly the type of behavior that inspired former president Donald Trump to threaten to ban the app in the United States.
The recordings, which were reviewed by BuzzFeed News, contain 14 statements from nine different TikTok employees indicating that engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least. Despite a TikTok executive's sworn testimony in an October 2021 Senate hearing that a "world-renowned, US-based security team" decides who gets access to this data, nine statements by eight different employees describe situations where US employees had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how US user data was flowing. US staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes.
"Everything is seen in China," said a member of TikTok's Trust and Safety department in a September 2021 meeting. In another September meeting, a director referred to one Beijing-based engineer as a "Master Admin" who "has access to everything." (While many employees introduced themselves by name and title in the recordings, BuzzFeed News is not naming anyone to protect their privacy.) The recordings range from small-group meetings with company leaders and consultants to policy all-hands presentations and are corroborated by screenshots and other documents, providing a vast amount of evidence to corroborate prior reports of China-based employees accessing US user data.
The recordings, which were reviewed by BuzzFeed News, contain 14 statements from nine different TikTok employees indicating that engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least. Despite a TikTok executive's sworn testimony in an October 2021 Senate hearing that a "world-renowned, US-based security team" decides who gets access to this data, nine statements by eight different employees describe situations where US employees had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how US user data was flowing. US staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes.
"Everything is seen in China," said a member of TikTok's Trust and Safety department in a September 2021 meeting. In another September meeting, a director referred to one Beijing-based engineer as a "Master Admin" who "has access to everything." (While many employees introduced themselves by name and title in the recordings, BuzzFeed News is not naming anyone to protect their privacy.) The recordings range from small-group meetings with company leaders and consultants to policy all-hands presentations and are corroborated by screenshots and other documents, providing a vast amount of evidence to corroborate prior reports of China-based employees accessing US user data.
Orange Man was Correct (Score:5, Funny)
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blind squirrels too.
Re:Orange Man was Correct (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, an idiot could have told you that... and he did.
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What does that make his opponents who called him racist for it? Or the politicians who are utterly silent about it now?
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So he was correct, and they were correct, meaning the correct path was the racist path.
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Oh you still subscribe to the theory that Trump, like all presidents, didn't have 100 advisors briefing him every day and especially before press conferences. He was a racist loose canon! And when he did something right, well, that's because he's a racist!
Are you aware Biden initiated a national security review into TikTok because it's CCP owned? Huawei too, and banned it. I guess he's racist too.
Some fools never larn nuttin' (Score:1)
You're feeding a troll. Doesn't matter if he's sincerely stupid, proudly ignorant, or paid to fake it.
Well, it might matter to the troll if he's paid to fake it. He might get bonus payments for your replies.
Anyone defending TFG at this late date is borken [sic].
Re:Orange Man was Correct (Score:5, Informative)
Meanwhile, in this reality, Trump didn't know or care where the data was stored or accessed. He cared that it was used by teenagers to wreck his campaign rally in Tulsa. [nytimes.com]
As usual with Trump, his beef with TikTok was purely personal. It had nothing to do with sound policy, except by sheer blind coincidence.
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TDS? I don't think we should bring the ability to believe the former alleged president into this.
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If you weren't deranged, you weren't paying attention.
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Everything breaks in the vicinity of the Orange man.
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Everyone knew this and everyone said this. But it seems that neither kids nor their parents care.
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The same NSA that was listening in on Russian lines and caught his staff trying to cut deals with them BEFORE he was elected.
I'll take "No Shit" for $100 Alex... (Score:3)
Re:I'll take "No Shit" for $100 Alex... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope. Chinese will promise one thing, then do the exact opposite, then deny what they did, then call you a liar for calling out what they did...
Then again, the average teen would probably sell their soul to them for 30 seconds of 'internet fame'.
Re:I'll take "No Shit" for $100 Alex... (Score:5, Funny)
And apparently so will Hunter Biden.
Re:I'll take "No Shit" for $100 Alex... (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't even know about the "CEFC" bribe, do you?
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Changing the Subject is one of the trolls' favorite tactics.
But if the trolls aren't insane, they must be getting paid for the trolling... Then again, they might be getting paid for being insane?
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Well, we never really got to see any of "her" emails...she destroyed evidence before it was gotten to.
Not so much a problem in this case.
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Ya, we had a former alleged president do the same thing, except for the latter. He has no soul to sell.
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Because this is China.
China is an enemy of the US. It is their stated goal to overcome us (and other free countries in the world).
It is not in the US interests to allow an enemy like China unfettered access to information like this of our citizens.
I don't know where you live...but ob
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No way!! (Score:2)
And??
LOL Chinese Company (Score:2)
Re: LOL Chinese Company (Score:3)
Facebook didn't ever say they wouldn't do evil. They know they're evil, they know everybody else knows their evil. They just provide evil packaged in a thumbs up icon, and people will go on using it anyways.
Google was the one that said do no evil.
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The former alleged president saw nothing of the sort. He figured Americans had no love for Chinese companies, so he focused on another hobgobblin with which to scare them.
Slow day? (Score:1)
#TikTokTaughtMe is their hashtag (Score:2)
Could be bad (Score:2)
With this move, Chinese strategists now know exactly who is creating and watching the most moronic content in all of media. This reveals to them exactly where the soft white underbelly of America is located.
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They do use it to spy on Chinese expats.
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With this move, Chinese strategists now know exactly who is creating and watching the most moronic content in all of media. This reveals to them exactly where the soft white underbelly of America is located.
You don't think that's valuable?
I'm betting that Eileen Gu's competing for China [wikipedia.org] is actually a triumph of Chinese espionage, and she's not the only one [nationalpost.com].
Digging into their private social media, building up a psychological profile, and then building a recruitment plan. That's got serious value.
Why is this a problem? (Score:2)
I have a Google account and I expect service operators to access it from anywhere in the world, like the US. It only has to be stored in the EU, for whatever reason.
doesnt make it right... (Score:2)
but the US does the same thing with US companies
Data is significant, not irrelevant (Score:2)
First, forget about it being just idiots. Tik Tok gets shared and the problem is not using it a lot, but having it on your phone. How many children of important people have Tik Tok and their parents end up getting the App to see what is on Tik Tok?
Second, location data is extremely identifiable. It shows who you live with and where you work. Not that hard to identify every single soldier's home if you can tell the location of every person that enters a military base. Same for politicians, utility work
Thanks for the heads up, Zuck! (Score:3)
Of course it is. (Score:2)
And as to trump being right about this, he was NOT right. He was repeating what NSA told him. Yes, NSA has known this was going on.
Again, sadly, we have ppl like the Goon squad that claims China is not a threat and continues to push this crap. Just like Tr
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oh bullshit...
have you NOT read any of the Vault releases from Wikileaks, or any of the Snowden information?
without control of the infrastructure China has almost no hope of doing anything much. They're a miniscule threat compared to our own governments.
the REAL threat to cybersecurity are the intelligence agencies of every country - WITHIN their own country, or where they have intelligence sharing agreements - like here in Canada with the U.S. - where Canadian data is routed over the border to allow TURBUL
seriously who gives a fuck if China ALSO accesses? (Score:1)
China is just one more entity accessing our data. No big deal because IT'S CHINA.
In fact, i'd take China having access to my data over my home country or the U.S. because there's literally nothing China can do to me.
We can't keep harping on about China maybe having access to our data, while we have the likes of the N.S.A. TURBULENT and TURMOIL programs doing far far FAR worse to people of other countries.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. (Score:1)
Oh, it's really sad that such things happen.... Bu (Score:1)