Red Herring

THE BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY

  • Startups
  • Mobile
  • Enterprise
  • Consumer
  • Social
  • Events

TikTok Reveals Staff in China Get Access to European Users’ Data 

November 3, 2022

Solen Feyissa | Flickr

The Chinese social video app TikTok has confirmed that some of its employees in China are able to access the data of accounts in the European Union. The company will update its privacy policy amid heightened scrutiny from authorities around the world. 

Officials in the U.K., E.U., and the United States have expressed concerns that data from TikTok could be passed on to the Chinese government.

TikTok, which is hugely popular among younger demographics around the world, said the policy applies to the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The platform’s head of privacy for Europe, Elaine Fox, said that a global team helped keep the experiences of users “consistent, enjoyable and safe.” 

TikTok’s European data is kept in the U.S. and Singapore, but employees from other countries can now access it. “We allow certain employees within our corporate group located in Brazil, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States remote access to TikTok European user data,” Fox said in a statement. 

In the United States, President Joe Biden scrapped an earlier executive order from his predecessor Donald Trump demanding the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business, but has asked the Commerce Department to produce recommendations on how to protect Americans and their data from “foreign adversaries.” 

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is also conducting a security review of the platform, which has over 1 billion users worldwide. This week an official at the Federal Communications Commission said TikTok should be banned in the United States. “I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban,” said Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the FCC.

He added he believed there was not “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party].”

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

Filed Under: Europe, Social, Top Story

Related Articles

  • U.K. Introduces Bill Boosting Regulator Power to Curb Big Tech Competition Abuses
  • Alphabet Shares Jump After AI-Focused Developer Conference 
  • Activist Investor Elliott Takes Multi-Billion Dollar Stake in Salesforce 

Widget Spacer

Top 100

The Red Herring Top 100 awards highlights the most exciting startups from Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Learn More

Upcoming Events

  • Top 100 Asia

  • Top 100 North America

  • Top 100 Europe

Widget Spacer

Guest Column

What is a Learning Management System?

Rouben David, of CourseForMe.com, outlines the features and benefits of

Widget Spacer

Subscribe

Subscribe now to get event news and updates delivered right to your inbox:

Widget Spacer

#DigitalHerring Tweet

My Tweets
  • About
  • Press & Media
  • Contact Us
Red Herring LinkedInRed Herring Facebook

Copyright © · Red Herring, Inc.

Copyright © 2025 · Red Herring Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in