TikTok caught collecting private user data for over a year breaching Google’s own rules
TIKTOK hoarded private user data for over a year in a flagrant breach of app store rules set by Google.
An investigation found that the Chinese app dodged a privacy safeguard in Android to gather "unique identifiers" that allowed it to track users online.
The shock report from the Wall Street Journal has led to calls for Google to abolish TikTok – the most downloaded app worldwide – from its Play Store.
It comes as TikTok faces a ban in the US after President Donald Trump signed an executive order classifying the video-sharing app as a "national security threat."
According to the WSJ, the Android version of TikTok collected MAC addresses of devices for 15 months up until November last year.
A MAC address is a unique code for your phone or tablet that lets tech companies identify your device. They are typically used for advertising.
Collecting MAC Addresses is explicitly banned by Google. TikTok only stopped the practice with the release of a new version of the app.
The WSJ reported that ByteDance, the Beijing firm behind TikTok, hid its prohibited data-mining using an additional layer of encryption in the app.
The company did not seek permissions from users or Google before collecting MAC addresses.
It gathered "unique identifiers from millions of mobile devices, data that allows the app to track users online without allowing them to opt out," the report said.
TikTok: Brief guide to the world's most downloaded app
- TikTok lets users create and share short videos with music and camera effects
- The app is best known for creating short dance videos, lip-syncing clips, comedy sketches, and talent footage
- It is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, founded by the entrepreneur Zhang Yiming
- The $75 billion conglomerate acquired the Musical.ly app in 2017 and merged it with TikTok, bringing millions of new users
- By February 2019, TikTok and Douyin had been downloaded more than a billion times
- And it was the most-downloaded app on the App Store in 2018 and 2019
- Cyber experts have expressed concern over ByteDance's alleged links to the Chinese government
- The Department of Defense has urged its employees to avoid using the app over national security concerns
- TikTok says it does not and would not share information with the Chinese government
The revelation led to calls from Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, for Google to ban the app.
"So TikTok violated Google policies and essentially hacked Android phones in order to track users without their permission," Hawley tweeted on Tuesday.
"Google, ban TikTok from your platform and app store. Don’t wait."
TikTok was the world's most downloaded app in 2018 and 2019 but has recently faced mounting opposition in the US.
Experts and policy-makers fear the company may be funnelling the data of US users to the Chinese government. TikTok denies the allegations.
"We are committed to protecting the privacy and safety of the TikTok community," a TikTok spokesperson said.
"We constantly update our app to keep up with evolving security challenges, and the current version of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses.
"We have never given any US user data to the Chinese government nor would we do so if asked. We always encourage our users to download the most current version of TikTok."
Last week, Trump signed an executive order that will ban TikTok on September 20 if ByteDance doesn't sell its American operations.
"The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People's Republic of China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," the executive order reads.
"At this time, action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok."
Several tech companies have been linked to a TikTok buy-out, including Microsoft and Twitter.
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In other news, TikTok could sue the US government this week over Trump's looming nationwide ban.
TikTok has said it has tens of millions of US users and hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
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US lawmakers have raised intelligence, national security, and privacy concerns about the company’s ownership.
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