“I don’t think [Indians are] aware of how much of their data is exposed to China right now, even with the ban in place,” Forbes quoted a current TikTok employee as saying. The employee said that almost anyone at the companies with basic access to their tools can retrieve and analyse granular data about TikTok users in India, who once had the app installed on their phones.
Forbes cited another source who also claimed that Indians’ data has been accessible since the country banned the app.
TikTok can retrieve personal information
As per the report, TikTok has a social mapping tool that can retrieve a list of any public or private user’s closest connections on the app and personally identifiable information about them.
Furthermore, using the TikTok user’s unique identifier, the company can retrieve the TikTok usernames of the users’ friends and acquaintances, the region where they live, how they share TikTok content with phone contacts and other users on various social platforms, and their search behaviour.
The same UID can be used across TikTok and ByteDance’s other internal tools. TikTok reportedly had roughly 150 million monthly active users in India at the time it was shut down.
Indians at greater risk
The employee claimed that in the wrong hands, the information on Indians could be dangerous as it can be used to divide people.
“From [their social graphs], if you want to start a movement, if you want to divide people, if you want to do any kind of operation to influence the public on the app, you can just use that information to target those groups,” the employee noted.
The source also noted that this “powerful demographic data” could also be highly valuable for commercial purposes.
TikTok ban in the US
The revelation comes at a time when US President Joe Biden’s administration is threatening to ban TikTok – which is used by more than 150 million people in the country – if the platform’s Chinese owner does not sell its stake.
What TikTok has to say
“We have steadfastly complied, and continue to remain in full compliance, with the Government of India order since it was implemented,” Forbes quoted TikTok spokesperson Jason Grosse as saying.
“All user data is subject to our robust internal policy controls surrounding access, retention, and deletion,” Grosse reportedly added.
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