TikTok Executive Admits Australian Users' Data Accessed By Employees In China (theguardian.com) 15
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Australian user data is accessible to TikTok employees based in China on a "very strict basis," the company's head of data security, Will Farrell, has said. In their first public appearance before Australian members of parliament since the government joined Canada, the US and the UK in banning TikTok from government-owned devices amid concerns about the company's connections to China, TikTok executives were questioned at length by a parliamentary committee examining foreign interference on social media. Liberal senator and chair of the committee James Paterson, who has led the opposition's push against the app, questioned how many times Australian user data had been accessed by TikTok staff based within China. Farrell could not provide the number immediately, but admitted it did happen.
Farrell said there were "a number of protections in place", including that employees only get the minimum amount of access to data to do their job, and when they access that data they need to provide a business justification that needs to be approved by their manager and the database owner within TikTok. If the data is being accessed across a national border, it has to be approved by the global security team based in the US, which also monitors all data access. "Employees can't get access without a clear justification and levels of approval," Farrell said. A similar security review would apply if an employee based in China tried to change the recommendations algorithm, he said.
The company's local head of public policy, Ella Woods-Joyce, said China's 2017 national security law -- which requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to national security -- would apply to any company that had operations and staff in China. When asked on what ground TikTok would refuse to comply with the law, Woods-Joyce said TikTok had never been asked for personal data by the Chinese government and would refuse if asked. [...] It was revealed in December that employees had used the app to attempt to identify the source of a leak to journalists. Hunter told the committee that he stood by the sentiments expressed in his original article, and blamed "rogue employees" who had since been fired from the company for accessing the data. He said "serious misconduct from these rogue employees" had taken place. He said GPS location information was not collected in Australia.
Farrell said there were "a number of protections in place", including that employees only get the minimum amount of access to data to do their job, and when they access that data they need to provide a business justification that needs to be approved by their manager and the database owner within TikTok. If the data is being accessed across a national border, it has to be approved by the global security team based in the US, which also monitors all data access. "Employees can't get access without a clear justification and levels of approval," Farrell said. A similar security review would apply if an employee based in China tried to change the recommendations algorithm, he said.
The company's local head of public policy, Ella Woods-Joyce, said China's 2017 national security law -- which requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to national security -- would apply to any company that had operations and staff in China. When asked on what ground TikTok would refuse to comply with the law, Woods-Joyce said TikTok had never been asked for personal data by the Chinese government and would refuse if asked. [...] It was revealed in December that employees had used the app to attempt to identify the source of a leak to journalists. Hunter told the committee that he stood by the sentiments expressed in his original article, and blamed "rogue employees" who had since been fired from the company for accessing the data. He said "serious misconduct from these rogue employees" had taken place. He said GPS location information was not collected in Australia.
Proof they lied. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is absolute definitive recorded proof that they lied when they said this wasn't even possible.
China Lies.
Re: (Score:2)
This is absolute definitive recorded proof that they lied when they said this wasn't even possible.
Absolutely. It also calls into question the entire practice of outsourcing support, for the same reason.
Re: (Score:2)
What is the problem here exactly? How is this different from what Facebook or Google does?
Re: (Score:3)
What is the problem here exactly? How is this different from what Facebook or Google does?
Facebook and Google aren't exfiltrating the data before handing it to five eyes, which does that for them
Re: (Score:2)
Chinese Truth (Score:2)
The Chinese probably will not call it lying. China is so corrupt that the word "truth" means "whatever someone up the chain of command says it means". So people up the chain of command by definition always speak the truth, and people below the chain of command are just ... misinformed.
That also means that any Chinese truth depends on the time and context it was spoken, and that the shelf life of anything said by the Chinese is about zero seconds.
Re: (Score:3)
So, of course they aren't lying. They can't be lying since everyone agrees that what they say is true, and that makes it true, so shu
Re: (Score:2)
yes, physical reality is absolute.
the human understanding of reality is, in fact, fungible and subject to human will. there are entire departments dedicated to studying this in every government, school, and business. churches too actually even if they don't realize it.
this is why physics needs to be considered categorically superior to economics and any other social "science."
i actually like econ and social sciences more lol, because they're more "interesting" because they haven't been completely mined out
I particularly like (Score:2)
the "rogue employees" as scapegoats and as deflection.
The employees should not have access to such data in the first place. "My 10 year old used my firearm without my permission".
Anyone surprised by this isn't paying attention (Score:2)
The Chinese government is clear in its intentions to achieve its purposes by whatever means possible. This routinely includes lying, obfuscation, offering bounties for political activists who have escaped its grasp, and even intimidating the families of people abroad whom it wants back. We need to offer it as little trust as we can. Unfortunately too many very wealthy people have investments in companies with large commitments to China, so there are no easy answers in flawed democracy. But we need to do our
How many requests are denied? (Score:2)
Otherwise, the claims about strict processes signify exactly nothing.
Liberal (Score:2)
TFA uses the word Liberal. American readers are reminded that the meaning of the word liberal is as different in Australian English as that of jelly and rubber.
Australian English
jelly = jello
rubber = pencil eraser
Liberal = member of Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia is an alliance of conservatives, liberals and liberal-conservatives.
liberalism = a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private pr