A few years ago, then President Donald Trump told Americans to be careful about using the social media platform TikTok, explaining that this posed a serious security risk to the individual. The media widely ignored that, but more are starting to speak out and express their concern about the social media giant. There is belief that this is a security concern, but what do the experts say about TikTok regarding cyber threats?
TikTok Is Concerned
Let’s see what TikTok has to say. In 2020, the company announced that they were expanding its cybersecurity vulnerability disclosure program in hopes that users would share their concerns or information they have discovered about the platform related to its cybersecurity. The hope was that users would be able to expose vulnerabilities, helping to make the platform more secure.
Such a program proves one important thing – there clearly are vulnerability issues. The reason they were reaching out to consumers is that they likely were either not able to discover the problems on their own or there were too many for them. While it is likely that many of these vulnerabilities have been dealt with over the last two years, one still has to wonder what has not been discovered.
The Chinese Government Knows
In 2017, ByteDance bought TikTok. This is a Chinese-based company, and by Chinese law, the company is required to share all information with the Chinese government. That means that your information is sent directly to the Chinese government every time you use TikTok, post a video, send a message, or perform any other action on the platform.
You may not be concerned about this, but allowing any government agency, especially one with a questionable reputation, poses a danger to you. The sad part is that you can hire the best cybersecurity in Miami to protect your device, but that does not protect you when using TikTok. The company cannot deny the Chinese government from having your personal information.
This is a buyer-beware type of situation. You are fully aware now that the Chinese government has access to your TikTok account, where you log in from, any account information you provided, and even any financial information you provided. It is up to you whether you want to take the risk of allowing that information into their hands.