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A number of social media apps have been repeatedly accused of privacy and security leaks with exposure of user’s personal data. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all other platforms being repeatedly in news for privacy issues. A research from Bromium shows that social media sites have become massive centers for malware distribution and other kinds of criminal activity.
Cybersecurity firm Check Point published research on January 8 that found TikTok had security vulnerabilities that would have opened user data up to hackers. TikTok learned of the research in November 2019 and said it had fixed the vulnerabilities by Dec. 15 2019.
The Apple’s wedge: The beta release of Apple’s iOS 14 caught TikTok secretly accessing users’ clipboards reported by Forbes. TikTok is not alone in this blame as many other apps have been found to steal user information in different ways, and like those others, TikTok issued a clarification and an update. Evina, a French cybersecurity firm, recently discovered a batch of 25 Android apps masking themselves as games, wallpaper, and other useful programs to get at your private information. But it was TikTok that made the headings, because it had been caught before in 2019, doing the same and had promised to stop.
Apple iOS 14 security features has exposed that TikTok has access to your clipboard. The app can read anything you copy on another device, including Passwords, documents, emails, financial information and majority of data on your device.
Ban from Indian Government: The Indian government banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps in June after deadly clash over disputed territory in Laddakh. India is the platform’s largest market, with around 100 million monthly active users, the ban might cost TikTok as much as $6 billion.
Australia: Reports from Australia suggested its government was coming under pressure to ban TikTok and other Chinese apps.. pedestrian.tv
USA: Mike Pompeo confirmed in a Fox News interview that the U.S. was “certainly looking at” banning the platform. TikTok has been under scrutiny in the U.S. for months. The government launched a national security investigation of ByteDance in November, as TikTok has been repeatedly accused of being “compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.”
The U.S. Army and Navy banned TikTok from government-issued smartphones over cybersecurity concerns followed by major accusations on TikTok, as reported by USA Today on Dec 23rd 2019.
TikTok will quit Hong Kong operations after China imposed a new security law, reported by Reuters on July 7. This follows Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Google and Telegram all announced changes in operations in Hong Kong after the new security law came into force on June 30th.
TikTok and all other social media platforms have been repeatedly accused of stealing user data and various security and privacy issues have been brought under limelight by researchers exposing user’s data under threat of misuse to the extent of cybercrimes. The only results are an explanation and an update ensuring it will never happen again. The apps are still available on the app stores be it Apple or Android. What happened to the data that was allegedly stolen? Who is getting benefits out of it? And how to stop this? The responsibility comes to the individuals, how much they can risk there data to be taken away by these companies and used for their own good.
Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels
