TikTok Confirmed that Employees Based in China Can Access US User Data, Only After An "Approval Process"

TikTok has confirmed that employees based in China of ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, have access to US user information under certain circumstances. This was stated in a letter issued by The New York Times in response to nine Republican senators' questions about the matter.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew stated in the letter that "Employees outside the US, including China-based employees, can have access to TikTok US user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US-based security team,"

Chew said that "TikTok has an internal data classification system and approval process in place that assigns levels of access based on the data's classification and requires approvals for access to US user data," "The level of approval required is based on the sensitivity of the data according to the classification system."

A TikTok spokesperson stated in a statement to BuzzFeed News, "We know we're among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of US user data."