Chinese Spyware App TikTok Collects Data From More Than Two-Dozen State Governments, Review Finds

The parent company of the Chinese spyware app TikTok, ByteDance Ltd., has been found to use a web-tracking code on websites for more than 30 U.S. state governments in 27 states, according to a report by Feroot Security. Although some of these states had already banned TikTok from their networks and devices, website administrators still use the code, which measures the effectiveness of advertising purchased on TikTok. However, the code can collect sensitive data that users enter on websites, such as usernames and addresses. ByteDance, a Chinese company, has been known to share data with the country’s Communist government, and it used TikTok to obtain data from journalists working for Forbes, BuzzFeed, and the Financial Times, according to Forbes.

President Joe Biden agreed to ban the app from government devices in February after it faced criticism for spying on American citizens. A bill that aims to restrict TikTok is currently going through Congress, though some critics say it is toothless and will let the Biden administration avoid taking real action against the app. The Journal warns that even a national TikTok ban wouldn’t address many of the concerns with data collection.

Notably, Feroot has also found tracking pixels on state government websites from other Chinese-owned companies and Russian-owned companies.