TikTok assures Republicans it’s working to protect US data security - The Verge

In a letter addressed to Republican critics, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew detailed how the company planned to separate American user data from ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company.

After years of mounting pressure, TikTok provided US lawmakers with more details into how it limits Chinese access to American data in a new letter dated Thursday.

In a letter addressed to nine of the app’s most prominent Republican critics, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew detailed how the company planned to separate American user data from ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company. Chew also explained TikTok’s plan to house American user data on Oracle servers, a plan first reported by BuzzFeed News last month.

“We’re proud to be able to serve a global community of more than a billion people who use TikTok to creatively express themselves and be entertained,” Chew wrote in the letter first reported by The New York Times. “We know we are among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of U.S. user data.”

The Verge independently confirmed the letter’s authenticity on Friday.

Soon after BuzzFeed News reported that ByteDance engineers in China had access to US data as late as January 2022, Republican senators questioned Chew about the company’s data security practices in a June letter. The letter — signed by lawmakers like Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) — raised concerns that TikTok officials “did not provide truth or forthright answers” in a recent committee hearing in light of the report.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/1/23191506/tiktok-republicans-data-security-ccp-china

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