TikTok denies it could be used to track US citizens

TikTok has denied a study that a China-based squad astatine its genitor institution ByteDance planned to usage the app to way the locations of US citizens.

The steadfast besides says it does not cod precise determination information from US users.

It was responding to a report successful Forbes that information would person been accessed without users' cognition oregon consent.

The US concern magazine, which cited documents it had seen, reported that ByteDance had started a monitoring task to analyse misconduct by existent and erstwhile employees.

It said the project, which was tally by a Beijing-based team, had planned to cod determination information from a US national connected astatine slightest 2 occasions.

The study said it was unclear whether American citizens' information was ever collected but determination had been a program to get determination information from US users' devices.

In a bid of tweets TikTok's communications squad said the study lacked "both rigor and journalistic integrity".

It added that "Forbes chose not to see the information of our connection that disproved the feasibility of its halfway allegation: TikTok does not cod precise GPS determination accusation from US users, meaning TikTok could not show US users successful the mode the nonfiction suggested."

In effect to a BBC petition for remark a Forbes spokesperson said: "We are assured successful our sourcing, and we basal by our reporting."

The developers of apps person travel nether scrutiny from authorities astir the world, particularly implicit the information of subject and quality personnel.

In 2020, a US nationalist information sheet ordered ByteDance to merchantability TikTok's American concern implicit concerns that users' information could beryllium passed to the Chinese government.

TikTok said it migrated US users' accusation to servers astatine Austin-headquartered Oracle this June, to code immoderate regulatory issues.

Meanwhile, TikTok is facing a £27m ($30m) good successful the UK, for failing to support the privateness of children utilizing the platform.

Last month, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office recovered that the video-sharing level whitethorn person processed the information of under-13s without due consent.

The watchdog said the breach took spot implicit much than 2 years - until July 2020 - but that it had not yet drawn last conclusions.

Tiktok has disputed the findings and said they were "provisional".

TikTok is the world's fastest-growing societal media app and has been downloaded much than 3.9 cardinal times.

It has made much than $6.2bn (£5.5bn) successful gross gross from in-app spending since its motorboat successful 2017, according to analytics institution Sensor Tower.