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TikTok has surreptitiously collected data about users’ Android smartphones with their consent, an obvious violation of Google’s App Store policies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The app has registered users’ MAC addresses, unique virtual identifiers attached to all smartphones that are reset, allowing TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to track other people even if they override their privacy settings to opt out of certain ad tracking practices, Wall Street Daily found.
Analysis of the Journal, which was based on an earlier edition of TikTok, revealed that the app had collected MAC addresses for at least 15 months, but ended the practice with an app update last November.
“We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of the TikTok community.” We constantly update our app to address conversion security challenges, and the existing edition of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses,” a spokesperson from TikTok told Business Insider.” We inspire our users to download the latest edition of TikTok.”
Google banned app developers from collecting users’ MAC addresses in 2015, while Apple had done the same two years earlier. But smartphone security experts told the Wall Street Journal that TikTok circumvented the policy by exploiting a bug and hid its clues with an extra layer of encryption.
“We are investigating these allegations,” a Google spokesman told Business Insider, though he declined to comment in particular on the alleged error that TikTok allegedly exploited.
Trump’s orders have raised considerations about ownership of programs through Chinese-based companies, saying they are under pressure from the Chinese government that can force them to censor content that they consider objectionable or help them spy on Americans’ knowledge collected through apps.
“We never gave the Chinese government the knowledge of American users and we do so if they ask us to,” TikTok spokesman told Business Insider.
Experts told Isobel Asher Hamilton of Business Insider that TikTok is no more intrusive in its knowledge-gathering practices than competition like Facebook, and the CIA told the White House that “there is no evidence” that the Chinese government has accessed the knowledge of TikTok’s American users.
Experts also expressed doubts about the legality of Trump’s orders, arguing that they violated the First Amendment ban on government censorship. TikTok is reportedly making plans to challenge the order in court as of this week.
Paige Leskin and Katie Canales contributed to the story.