'Why Do You Need All This Personal Data?': Blackburn, TikTok Exec Clash During Tense Senate Hearing

and thank you mr chairman mr beckerman i want to come to you first in the past tick tock has said that it has never nor would it ever share and provide user data to the chinese government even if asked yet your privacy policy says you can disclose data collected to respond to government inquiries it also says you share data you collect with your parent companies and affiliates and that you transmit user information to servers and data centers overseas and earlier this year the chinese communist party acquired an ownership state and a seat on the board of bike dance so does tic toc share user data with its parent company by dance um thank you senator um this is an important question and i'm glad you're asking um tick tock does not quickly excuse me quickly please yes senator um we do not share information with the chinese government and i would like to point you to a citizen lab report which is one of the most well respected global national security experts where they said our research shows that there's no overt data transmission to the chinese government and our testing tic toc did not contact any servers within china um and then the report goes on to state senator let me ask tiktok does not pose a threat to national security i'd be happy to submit that okay let me ask you please submit the report for the record do any bike dance employees have access to tick-tock user data or any role in creating their algorithm senator u.s user data is stored in the united states our backups are in singapore and we have a um a world-renowned us-based security team that handles access i understand that you you say you store it in singer singapore tell me about programmers product developers and the data teams are they housed in china senator like many technology companies we have engineers in the united states and throughout and around the world and so they have access to algorithms and data senator we have engineers in the united states and we also have engineers that answer is yes what about doyan uh bike dance says they are fully separate but dudeon employees have any access to tic tac to user data or input into the algorithm um senator that's a completely different app from tick tock and no it's a related company you might want to check that if the chinese communist party asks you for u.s user data what is to stop you from providing it since they have a seat on the board of bike dance and they have a financial stake in the company um senator that's not accurate one they do not have a stake in tick tock at all oh yes they do it happened in august um senator that's not that it is bike dance and uh i let's we can clarify that for the record but the record is that the chinese communist party acquired a stake in bike dance in august and they now have a seat on the board so let's talk about tick tock's privacy policy it says you collect and keep a wide variety of information including viometric data such as face prints voice prints geo-location information browsing and search history not just on tik-tok but on other apps and key stroke patterns and rhythms why do you need all of this personal data especially on our children which seems to be more than any other platform collects senator many outside researchers and experts that look at this have pointed out that tiktok actually collects less data than many of our peers and on the keystroke issues outside researchers that you're paying for no senator you would submit that to independent outside researchers because what we're seeing with all of this biometric data and the keystroke patterns that you are exceeding that so what do you do with this are you creating a virtual you of the children that are on your site senator i don't know what you mean by by virtual you well a virtual you is you and your presence online it's like a virtual dossier i'm sure you understand that term and let's what do you need with all of this information do you track children's viewing patterns are you building a replication of where they go their search history their voice their biometrics and why does tick tock and bike dance and doyan need that information on our children um senator tiktok is an entertainment platform where people watch and enjoy and create short form videos um it's it's about uplifting and entertaining content people love it um and i i disagree with the characterization of the way that is it from the positive but there's also a negative and the negative is that you are building a profile a virtual you of our children because of the data that you're collecting you mentioned the family parent provision that you have so when you have a parent that goes on that are they opening their data to tick-tock and is tick-tock following them are following and capturing their search history see mr beckerman when you capture all of this data and you hold all of this data then you are invading the property the the private the privacy of individuals that are on your site and that applies to you to ms stout to miss miller because you are you say because you are using the platform we can do this but in essence what you're doing is making our children and their data you're making that the product because you turn around and you sell it and then basically it becomes weaponized against their users mr chairman i'm over time i have several questions from his stamp ms miller and we'll do those in a second round we'll have a second round

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 628,873

Keywords: Sen. Marsha Blackburn, TikTok, Senate

Id: ZKr6yW_JqqA

Length: 6min 38sec (398 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 26 2021