TikTok has confirmed that employees in mainland China can access the data of millions of Australian users.
The admission came after James Paterson, the shadow minister for cybersecurity and countering foreign interference, wrote to TikTok’s Australian general manager on July 3, asking for clarification on local user data.
Paterson, also the chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security, publicized the correspondence on social media.
“TikTok Australia has replied to my letter and admitted that Australian user data is also accessible in mainland China, putting it within reach of the Chinese government, despite their previous assurances it was safe because it was stored in the US and Singapore,” he wrote in a Twitter post on July 13….