US Senator Josh Hawley isn't convinced by privacy offered by TikTok

TikTok has tried to distance itself from China but has reportedly failed to convince lawmakers in the United States of America. Senator Josh Hawley chaired a meeting on Tuesday, November 05, which was on focussed on security of US Citizen's Personal Data. 

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One knock away from transferring data

At the meeting, Hawley said, "Parents, if you don’t know what TikTok is, you should. It’s a Chinese-owned social media platform so popular among teens today that Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly spooked. For Facebook, the fear is lost social-media market share. For the rest of us, the fear is different. A company compromised by the Chinese Communist Party knows where your children are, what they look like, what their voices sound like, what they are watching, and what they share with each other. TikTok claims they don’t store American user data in China. That’s nice, but all it will take is one knock on the door of their parent company from Communist Party officials for that data to be transferred to the Chinese government’s hands, whenever they need it. But this isn’t just a threat to children’s privacy; it’s a threat to our national security. We don’t know what China can do with this kind of social data in aggregate, what it tells China about our society. They can see who we talk to, what we talk about, where we congregate, what we capture on video. Not all of TikTok’s users are just kids goofing around; some work in government or for the military. Others are celebrities or may work for major American companies in positions of significant influence. What does it mean for China to have a window into such users’ social lives? Why would we leave that window open? They should answer to the millions of Americans who use their product, with no idea of its risks. They should have been here today."

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Hawley has been a strong advocate of protecting an individual's privacy and has previously said that he does not trust 'big tech companies' to be responsible with the information provided to them by the users. 

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