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Washington [US]Aug. 21 (ANI): Amid data privacy concerns, new research suggests that the web browser used in China’s TikTok app can track every keystroke of its users.
According to The New York Times, the research was done by privacy researcher and former Google engineer Felix Krause.
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Collecting the information people enter on their phones while visiting external websites could reveal credit card numbers and passwords, a feature often used by malware and other hacking tools, according to the researchers.
While big tech companies may use such trackers when testing new software, it’s not uncommon for them to release major commercial apps with the feature, whether it’s enabled or not, the researchers said.
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“According to Krause’s findings, there is a problem with the way TikTok’s custom in-app browser monitors keystrokes because users may enter their sensitive data, such as login credentials, on external websites,” said Jane Manchun, independent software engineer and security researcher Wong said. App with new features.
However, TikTok said in a statement that Krause’s report was “incorrect and misleading” and that the feature was used for “debugging, troubleshooting and performance monitoring.”
“Contrary to what the report says, we do not collect keystrokes or text input through this code,” TikTok said.
Krause, 28, said he could not determine whether keystrokes were being actively tracked and whether the data was being sent to TikTok.
Notably, 300 current employees of TikTok and its parent company ByteDance previously worked for Chinese state media publications, according to public employee LinkedIn profiles reviewed by Forbes.
Twenty-three of the profiles appear to have been created by current ByteDance directors, who manage departments overseeing content cooperation, public affairs, corporate social responsibility and “media cooperation.”
15 said current ByteDance employees are also employed by Chinese state media entities, including Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International and CCTV/China Global Television. (These organizations are among those designated by the State Department as “foreign government workers” in 2020.)
Meanwhile, the leader of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee has called for an investigation into whether Chinese officials obtained data on U.S. users of the short-video platform TikTok.
In a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio urged her to review TikTok’s ability to protect private data.
TikTok, popular for its short viral meme-making videos, has struggled to counter concerns it poses a national security risk. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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