TikTok denies tracking allegations

TikTok has recently denied a report that its parent company ByteDance, was planning to track the location of American Citizens.

A statement was released on Twitter that said that the app had never been used to “target” the US government, public figures, journalists, or activists.

They also said that it did not collect data on location from American users.

The company was responding to a report by Forbes magazine which stated that data would have been accessed without the knowledge or consent of users.

Forbes’ report said ByteDance had a monitoring project which was set up for investigating misconduct by current and former staff members.

The project is allegedly run by a team located in Beijing and had planned on two occasions to collect location data from Americans.

The report stated that it was not clear whether or not any data was collected however, there was a plan to retrieve the location data from the American user’s devices.

TikTok’s communications team said the report lacked “both rigor and journalistic integrity” and that “Forbes chose not to include the portion of our statement that disproved the feasibility of its core allegation”.

They continued “TikTok does not collect precise GPS location information from US users, meaning TikTok could not monitor US users in the way the article suggested”.

Responding to the BBC, a Forbes spokesperson said, “We are confident in our sourcing, and we stand by our reporting.”.

This story only adds to the ongoing privacy concerns with TikTok. The company is also facing a £27m fine in the UK as the Information Commissioner’s Office found that TikTok may have processed data from users under the age of 13 without the appropriate consent.

TikTok has defended itself against these findings saying that are “provisional”.

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