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Two US Republican senators on Thursday requested the Federal Trade Commission for an investigation of video-sharing app TikTok’s shopper knowledge assortment and processing practices.
The request was in a letter by Senator Jerry Moran, chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Senator John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet.
The senators sought particular solutions from the FTC associated to a Wall Street Journal report that described TikTok’s undisclosed assortment and transmission of information from thousands and thousands of US shoppers till November 2019.
“There are allegations that TikTok discretely collected media access control (MAC) addresses, commonly used for advertisement targeting purposes … through November 2019,” said the letter, which was addressed to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons.
The letter is the latest example of Washington’s mounting scrutiny of a Chinese-owned company over national security concerns. Under a Chinese law introduced in 2017, companies have an obligation to support and cooperate in China’s national intelligence work.
US President Donald Trump on August 6 signed an executive order prohibiting transactions with TikTok if its Chinese parent ByteDance does not reach a deal to divest it within 45 days.
A company spokeswoman said the current TikTok app does not collect MAC addresses.
“As the Wall Street Journal factors out, the TikTok app will not be distinctive within the quantity of knowledge it collects, in comparison with different cell apps; nevertheless the assertions made within the article misrepresent our intentions for utilizing encryption.”
© Thomson Reuters 2020
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