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A news conference held by content creators and some legislators at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday shined the light on internet security once again. Weeks ago, the Biden administration ordered all government employees to delete TikTok, an app known for its short videos, from all devices.

The employees were given 30 days to comply, and that month is coming to an end next week. TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, whose CEO Shou Chew testified before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce today.

Garrett Culver, a local IT consultant, broke down the situation.

Concern over TikTok seems to be in two camps, he said. The first is the obvious data collecting that apps can do based on your interests, your location and many other pieces of information that might be stored in or around your phone.

This is almost mundane these days, as almost everyone with a smart phone expects to give up a certain level of privacy. Is it worse when the data collected goes to a Chinese company instead of an American one? Some people believe so.

He said the second school of thought, and the often larger concernis that ByteDance could be forced by the Chinese government to alter the algorithm for users in the U.S., to show them heavily biased videos around elections.

The concern is that this could influence public opinion in favor of Chinese positions on political issues, Culver said.

These arguments come as President Biden has endorsed the RESTRICT Act, which authorizes the secretary of commerce to review and prohibit certain transactions between people in the United States and foreign adversaries. That bill has been gaining bipartisan support after The New York Times confirmed ByteDances security investigation uncovered four employees at TikTok were collecting the data of a journalist at the Times.

In his testimony today, Chew said data collected from the app has never been shared with the Chinese government. He also highlighted some security measures TikTok is working to implement to make the app safer.

Many TikTok users have said this is a ban on free speech as it prohibits them from using the platform.

In a press conference on March 1, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House has concerns about TikTok being a national security concern.

We have been clear about our concerns about TikTok, apps like TikTok, and, certainly, our concerns with countries, including China, as they seek to leverage digital technologies and Americans data in ways that can harm and risk our national security, she said.

Culver said there are ways people can make sure their privacy settings are secure.

On many phones, you can go to Settings, then Apps, then select TikTok itself, then Permissions and see what permissions you have granted to the app, he said. If you are not recording your own TikToks, for instance, you can probably take away permission for it to access your camera and microphone.

The White House has also said an easy remedy to keep TikTok is for ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company who can safely control the data.

Questions have been raised about how selling the app or heightening security could alter the effectiveness of the algorithm the one thing that sets TikTok apart from other apps. Made of many short videos, TikTokis able to gather data to recommend videos as users continue to scroll through the app.

It seems that these privacy permissions have less impact on TikTok's algorithm, as it is mostly designed for optimizing engagement, Culver said. It pays attention to how long you watch a video before you swipe, how many times you let a video loop and if you scroll past a video then scroll back to it.

Likes, comments and subscriptions are practically like fireworks for the algorithm, as well. Data like that is how they learn to feed you a steady stream of content they know you will watch, and that is how the app is designed to work, there isn't much you can do in your privacy settings to counteract that.

Hearings and testimonies are expected to continue this week and in coming weeks.

The rest is here:
Questions of TikTok privacy fuel concern over internet safety - thecorryjournal.com