The problem is always the same: access to user data - stored on TikTok's servers - by the Chinese company ByteDance who develops the application. During registration, TikTok does not provide privacy information provided in the manner to which users are now accustomed, i.e. a barrier beyond which one cannot proceed except by accepting the conditions imposed by the owner of the platform, but a simple and generic warning which reads: “By continuing, you agree to the terms of use of the service and confirm that you have read ours privacy policy".
TikTok says it does not share user data with third parties for advertising purposes, but it may share it with “other government entities“. Furthermore, for reasons due to agreements with suppliers of other related services, user data could be shared, but only if the same privacy rules are respected.
For the European Commission these are modalities that lend themselves to partisan interpretations, far from a clear identification of the limits within which users from countries outside China can be considered sure that the right to privacy of their data will be respected. For this reason, the peremptory order arrived from Brussels to uninstall the application from employees' smartphones by 15 March. A decision in line with what has already been implemented since US president Joe Biden, who in December ordered the social media to be deleted from the cellphones of all government employees. Same fate for the in app India, Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In Italy, is already engaged on the subject Copasir, but it is the Ministry of Public Administration that has the greatest concerns. The minister Paul Zangrillo is at the forefront of the ban and wants to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. Matteo Salvini on the other hand, he says he is in favor of controls on data processing, but he is against any type of censorship, therefore against banning the app.
The main doubts about the processing of data by the TikTok company concern the possibility of know the location of each user and to keep this data in order to be able to reconstruct user movements and habits. In addition to requests already raised by the BEUC however, which concern consumers more than institutions, there are the analyzes of the “Malcore's Team“, a team of web 2.0 analysts who published a detailed study on how to collect user data by social networks. TikTok turned out to be the worst: it collects too much data and keeps it suspiciously.
ByteDance, for its part, said it was ready to clarify the doubts. In addition to having issued a communication to challenge the study of Malcore's Team, immediately made it known, with regard to the problem also raised in Italy, that "The data of Italian users are not stored in China". Will it be enough to calm the spirits?
