TikTok has a straightforward defence against accusations that it funnels personal information to the Chinese state: Trust us. The viral video app claims that user profiles are stored on servers in Singapore and the United States and insists that it would not hand over the data even if Beijing ordered it to do so. TikTok’s privacy policy paints a different picture: “We may share your information with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group,” according to its terms and conditions. The parent in question is Bytedance, an eight-year-old internet giant that has rapidly become one of the world’s most valuable private companies. Because it is based in Beijing, Bytedance operates under China’s national security laws, which compel internet companies to turn over

Source: The Times August 03, 2020 16:18 UTC