Everyone collects our data… Apple, Google, third party apps… everyone. So what is the really concern with China doing it specifically? Everything I have tried to read about this just talks about how China will use it for ads, but that’s what tons of other tech companies are already doing… so why is China owning our data different?
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The short answer is, unlike those companies, China can use the data for surveillance/warfare purposes.
TikTok collects an incredible amount of data including but not limited to your notes, location, contacts, credit card information, age, phone numbers, addresses, biometric data, and even keystrokes.[1](https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1108843837/can-tiktok-be-trusted-with-users-data) [2](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/technology/tiktok-browser-tracking.html) [3](https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/us/privacy-policy/en)
They could find the family of military members and blackmail them, push propaganda, find and arrest dissidents that fled the country [1](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-operating-illegal-overseas-police-station-chinese-government), conduct corporate espionage, and commit identity fraud. These are just SOME of the many things that the data could be used for.
If you think that China won’t or can’t access the data, here is a quick excerpt from the Associated Press regarding some of China’s laws, “China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law states that “any organization” must assist or cooperate with state intelligence work while a separate 2014 Counter-Espionage Law says “relevant organizations … may not refuse” to collect evidence for an investigation.” [1](https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-bytedance-shou-zi-chew-8d8a6a9694357040d484670b7f4833be) According to reports, the data may have even been accessed already, multiple times. [1](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-tapes-us-user-data-china-bytedance-access)
The companies in the US while one could argue are also seeking to exploit us, do not present as large of a security risk. They are not going to hand over our data to foreign powers. They are not required to have a backdoor.
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