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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Technology
Rafqa Touma

TikTok has been accused of ‘aggressive’ data harvesting. Is your information at risk?

TikTok Robert Potter United States China Internet Brent Thomas ByteDance Clare ONeil James Paterson Zhang Yiming
Woman looks at TikTok on a phone
A new report has warned of ‘excessive’ and ‘intrusive’ data harvesting by TikTok, with some calling for the social media platform to be banned. Photograph: picsmart/Alamy

Cybersecurity experts have warned Australian TikTok users that the Chinese government could use the app to harvest personal information, from in-app messages with friends to precise device locations.

The warnings follow a report by Australian-US cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0, which found the most popular social media app of the year collects “excessive” amounts of information from its users.

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