TikTok refuses it could use location details to track U.S. users

October 24, 2022: -On Friday, TikTok rejected that it used precise location data to track certain U.S. people, going back against a report by Forbes that states the Chinese-owned video app was training to carry out such monitoring.

On Thursday, Forbes posted an article alleging TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, designed to use its app “to monitor the personal location of some typical American citizens,” noting materials considered by the publication.

The Forbes article said it’s unclear whether any data was collected. TikTok hit back at the article in a tweet, claiming it lacks “both rigor and journalistic integrity.”

TikTok said Forbes “chose not to indicate the portion of our statement that disproved the feasibility of its core allegation, TikTok does not gather specific GPS location information from U.S. users, meaning TikTok could not monitor U.S. users the article offered.”

TikTok added that its app has never been used to “target” any members of the U.S. government, activists, public figures, or journalists.

TikTok has had a testing team of years in the U.S. ever since former President Donald Trump called the app to divest its U.S. business, claiming it threatened federal security. Washington has been concerned that data collected on U.S. citizens by TikTok could get into the hands of the Chinese form.

In July, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew revealed that “employees outside the U.S., which have China-based employees, can have the right to TikTok U.S. user data subject to strong cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols supervised by our U.S.-based security team.”

But the company said it was launching a major initiative named Project Texas, which is intended to “completely safeguard user data and U.S. national security interests.” This comprises storing all U.S. data by default in Oracle’s cloud.