TikTok announced that it has transferred its US user data to Oracle’s cloud platform. The decision relates to the fears from US officials that the social media company’s Chinese ties could cause national security risks.
What’s behind TikTok’s operational change in the USA?
The security concerns began under Trump administration, US officials had been anxious about TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance, a Chinese company, voicing that the US users risked having their data disclosed to the Chinese government. Referring to these claims The social media app preserved its US user data storage in Singapore and the United States. The Trump administration went ahead and attempted to ban TikTok from US app stores, nevertheless, that move was blocked in the courts.
Last year, under Biden administration a softer attitude was taken toward regulating ByteDance, applying not to impose the order to pressure it to entirely sell off its US operations. Though, reports have come up that TikTok’s data handling does not portray in the safest light. After all years, on June 17 2022 on a blog, Tiktok announced that after working with Oracle for more than a year, they moved their US user data to Oracle servers.
The short video app will still use their US and Singapore data centers for backup, but continue to delete their US users’ private data from their data centers and fully rotate to Oracle cloud servers located in the US.
Additionally, they said;
« We’re working closely with Oracle to develop data management protocols that Oracle will audit and manage to give users, even more peace of mind. We’re also making operational changes in line with this work – including the new department we recently established, with US-based leadership, to solely manage US user data for TikTok. Together, these changes will enforce additional employee protections, provide more safeguards, and further minimize data transfer outside of the US. This is an important direction from a systems and data security standpoint, and part of our focus on preserving an interconnected experience for our global community while building a security-first culture. »
Data control is a big concern worldwide and governments investigate new regulations in order to keep their citizens’ privacy safe from tech companies.