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The application collected MAC addresses for the purpose of tracking users.
TikTok's short video app has been collecting unique identifiers from millions of Android devices, violating Google's privacy practices. The information collected allowed the application to track users online, writes The Wall Street Journal.
We are talking about the so-called MAC addresses - unique identifiers assigned to each piece of network equipment and allowing each connection point to be identified. According to the newspaper, the tracking of users was hidden by an additional layer of encryption. Such actions violate Google's policy that restricts the way applications can track people, and TikTok did not inform users about the collection of data.
Data collection took place for more than one year, in November 2019 TikTok stopped this practice, the newspaper writes. Google did not comment on the situation, and a TikTok spokesman said that the current version of the application does not collect MAC addresses.
The Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the TikTok service, is under pressure from the White House over concerns that the application could collect data on US government officials and contractors and transfer it to the PRC government. TikTok refutes all charges.
TikTok is under suspicion not only in the US. As it became known, France also launched an investigation into the activities of TikTok. The verification is related to the platform's privacy policy. According to the representative of the National Commission for Freedom of Information (CNIL) of France, the investigation was initiated on the basis of a complaint received in May this year. The department did not specify the reason for the complaint or by whom it was filed.
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TikTok's short video app has been collecting unique identifiers from millions of Android devices, violating Google's privacy practices. The information collected allowed the application to track users online, writes The Wall Street Journal.
We are talking about the so-called MAC addresses - unique identifiers assigned to each piece of network equipment and allowing each connection point to be identified. According to the newspaper, the tracking of users was hidden by an additional layer of encryption. Such actions violate Google's policy that restricts the way applications can track people, and TikTok did not inform users about the collection of data.
Data collection took place for more than one year, in November 2019 TikTok stopped this practice, the newspaper writes. Google did not comment on the situation, and a TikTok spokesman said that the current version of the application does not collect MAC addresses.
The Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the TikTok service, is under pressure from the White House over concerns that the application could collect data on US government officials and contractors and transfer it to the PRC government. TikTok refutes all charges.
TikTok is under suspicion not only in the US. As it became known, France also launched an investigation into the activities of TikTok. The verification is related to the platform's privacy policy. According to the representative of the National Commission for Freedom of Information (CNIL) of France, the investigation was initiated on the basis of a complaint received in May this year. The department did not specify the reason for the complaint or by whom it was filed.
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