Senator contacts Google to prohibit TikTok for supposedly tracking user information

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, is getting in touch with Google to remove TikTok from its platform after the social video app supposedly tracked user information by avoiding a personal privacy secure in Android, according to a Tuesday report by The Wall Street Journal. TikTok gathered “unique identifiers from millions of mobile devices, data that allows the app to track users online without allowing them to opt out,” the report states. 

Those identifiers collected by the business are called MAC addresses, and they’re normally utilized for marketing, the Journal notes. This most current speculation versus TikTok follows President Donald Trump provided an executive order recently that would efficiently prohibit the app in the United States next month.

“The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” the executive order checks out. “At this time, action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok.”

Sen. Hawley took to Twitter to compose: “So @tiktok_us violated @Google policies and essentially hacked Android phones in order to track users without their permission. @Google, ban TikTok from your platform and app store. Don’t wait.”

The method was supposedly concealed utilizing an extra layer of file encryption, and was done without the understanding of TikTok users. The business supposedly ended the practice in November.

“We are committed to protecting the privacy and safety of the TikTok community,” a TikTok agent stated. “We constantly update our app to keep up with evolving security challenges, and the current version of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses. We have never given any US user data to the Chinese government nor would we do so if asked. We always encourage our users to download the most current version of TikTok.”

A Google agent stated the business is examining the claims.