Tiktok Ban: Should America ban Tiktok? Learn why the Biden administration is furious over the Chinese app – why us should ban tiktok cybersecurity expert explains the risks of Chinese apps

Threat to the security of users’ data

As a cyber security researcher, I’ve noticed that every few years a new mobile app that becomes popular brings up issues of security, privacy and data access. Apps collect data for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the data is used to improve the app for the users. However, most apps collect data that companies use to raise money for themselves. This revenue typically comes from targeting ads based on data collected by users. The questions that arise from this use of data are: does the app need all this data? What does it do with the data? And how does it protect the data from others?

China can influence people’s likes and dislikes

So what makes TikTok so different from Pokemon-Go, Facebook or even your phone? Tiktok’s privacy policy, which very few people read. Overall, the company isn’t particularly transparent about its activities. The document is too long to list all the data it collects here, which should be a warning. There are a few items of interest in TikTok’s privacy policy in addition to the information you give them when you create an account – name, age, username, password, and many more. This can be used to influence users’ likes and dislikes.

(Doug Jacobson, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Iowa State University)