(JustPatriots.com)- One of America’s most used social media apps is TikTok, which boasts over 140 million active users over 18 years old, according to The Daily Caller. The application has long since been tied to the Chinese Communist Party and analysts suggest that it is the United States’ greatest cybersecurity failure.
The app has been involved in several scandals, with one jeopardizing user privacy when it was revealed that the app was copying information from users’ iOS clipboards, according to American Pigeon. Former President Donald Trump reportedly signed an executive order in August 2020 that would have banned the app in the United States, but it was not effective.
One analyst suggests that the app is long overdue to be sold to an American corporation and if that fails, then it “must be totally banned from operating in the U.S. to safeguard the data of millions of Americans,” The Daily Caller reports.
A Forbes report from October 2022 highlights how the app was tracking users’ location without their knowledge. The tracking was also reportedly unrelated to marketed advertising. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has long since claimed that the platform does not access American users’ data, however, Forbes reportedly confirmed that this was untrue when it uncovered an internal investigation within ByteDance that showed employees misusing data.
In addition to preexisting fears, TikTok updated its policy in 2021, allowing it to collect user biometrics. Biometrics are biological measurements used as a form of identification, such as fingerprint mapping and facial recognition.
TikTok’s Chief Operating Officer, Vanessa Pappas, pushed back on the idea that the metrics were used for nefarious reasons and told Senator Kyrsten Sinema that they were being used for video effects.
The company announced in November 2022 that it would begin allowing China-based employees access to data, including the location, of users in the European Union. The announcement was supplemented with the reason that such a move will promote “transparency,” but one analyst speculates that “it is more likely a test of the West’s resolve.”
