TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew has spoken to New York Times in Dealbook about will TikTok US data ever be shared with China.
Even though many of the questions were regarding a topic that has been bothering US citizens in the past month, the 40-year-old Chew was amusing and relaxed for most of the interview. Chew was especially proud of the #booktok, which has amassed over 70 billion views and has grown to be a major player in the publishing sector. But when pressed about the potential harm TikTok might do to young women, he rebuffed the question.
The ownership of TikTok by China-based ByteDance has led to requests on both sides of the political spectrum for the app to be banned, and Chew was prepared for questions regarding Chinese influence in the platform. Chew said:
“We take all these concerns seriously, we study them, we have been working with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to solve what we think is a very solvable problem,”
Project Texas is the solution for TikTok US data
The Committee for Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius, and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok have been working together to develop a procedure that entails cooperation with Oracle Corp. to protect TikTok US data.
The solution Shou Zi Chew came up with is called “Project Texas,” and it involves moving TikTok’s data from Singapore and Virginia to a new Oracle cloud infrastructure in the US, where only a team of US citizens will be able to access it. When asked about the security of TikTok US data chew responded by saying that TikTok has never received a request for user data from a foreign authority, and if they did, TikTok would decline their request.
“The broad goal for Project Texas is to help build trust with users and key stakeholders by improving our systems and controls, but it is also to make substantive progress toward compliance with the final agreement with the U.S. government that will fully safeguard user data and U.S. national security interests,”
– Shou Zi Chew
National security worries of the US government regarding Chinese government access to TikTok US data is a “solvable problem” according to Shou Zi Chew.
The famous TikTok algorithm, which suggests material based on user signals like watch time and engagement, is “simple math,” according to Chew, who also noted that the algorithms in the United States and China are already different because the various user groups interact differently. TikTok is the only platform of its size, according to Chew, that does not accept political advertisements since they do not fulfill the company’s objective of fostering creativity and spreading joy.
Where is TikTok US data stored right now?
Data from US users have long been kept by TikTok in its own data centers in Singapore and the US. Physical and logical safety measures at their Virginia data center include firewalls, gated entry points, and intrusion detection systems. Their data center in Singapore serves as the backup data storage place for their US users since it’s crucial to keep backup data storage locations to protect against catastrophic events when user data could be lost.
As part of their business partnership, TikTok and Oracle have been collaborating on a number of projects for more than a year to strengthen the security of their app, infrastructure, and US user data. Today, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure receives all US user traffic.
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You might want to take a look at our article titled: TikTok Invisible body challenge exploited by hackers if you want to read more about TikTok.
