TikTok’s parent company ByteDance collects data on people who don’t even use the app, and those same trackers are showing up on government websites that banned TikTok from their networks, a new report found.In a review of more than 3,500 company, organization and government websites, Canada-based Feroot Security found ByteDance tracking pixels on 30 state government websites in the U.S.
Some of those trackers were found in states that don’t allow TikTok on government networks or devices.The report was "eye-opening," Feroot Security CEO Ivan Tsarynny said, and shed new light on the "wild, wild West" of pixel tracking – or computer code that collects information on how a user interacts with a website.READ MORE: Skeptical US lawmakers grill TikTok CEO over safety concernsPixel trackers are used by lots of companies and "have legitimate business reasons," Tsarynny explained, but questions over how ByteDance collects and shares information – and who the company shares it with – have been plaguing the social media giant for months.In this photo illustration, the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on August 7, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) The platform, which has 150 million American users, has faced increased scrutiny over user privacy and its potential ties to China’s authoritarian government.
It's been dogged by persistent claims that it threatens national security or could be used to promote pro-Beijing propaganda and misinformation.The U.S.
has reportedly threatened a federal ban on the app unless its Chinese owners divest their stake.TikTok's CEO faced tough questions from U.S.