The former US Secretary of State and former director of the CIA is claiming that the Chinese Government is using viral social media app Tiktok to spy on people and excessively collect their data. In an exclusive interview with ITV's Good Morning Britain, Mike Pompeo said that every user of the app in the UK has had their data stolen by the Chinese intelligence services.
In his final few months working alongside former American president Donald Trump in office, Mr Pompeo tried but failed to get TikTok banned in the United States. And now he says he has seen evidence that Beijing is using the social media site to illegally obtain and monitor the nine million or so users of the app across the UK.
Speaking to the ITV breakfast show he said that as the former head of the CIA he was limited in what he could say about the supposed data breach but but made it absolutely clear that he thought Rishi Sunak's government need to put urgent measures in place and ban the app saying it poses a "national security risk".
Read more: TikTok is the Chinese Government spying on us, says former CIA boss Mike Pompeo
Speaking to GMB he said: "Every kid on TikTok in the United Kingdom has had their data stolen by the Chinese intelligence services called the MSS. They're tracking where they are, they're tracking what they're doing, they're tracking how long they are doing it, they know who their friends are, they're working against your people from inside of London, inside your cities."
TikTok has routinely denied allegations of mishandling data and said that it doesn’t share user data with the Chinese Government. In response to his allegations they told GMB "Former Secretary of State Pompeo routinely mischaracterises the data TikTok collects and how we secure it."
After his clip, chair of the foreign affairs select committee Alicia Kearns MP also appeared on the show with Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard to warn users to delete TikTok from their phones to protect their personal data.
She claimed: "What you are giving TikTok is your locations, your networks, you might be sharing with them information or interests that you don't want to be public and the reality is that data is all going back to ByteDance which is the company that owns TikTok which is a Chinese state owned firm.
"All Chinese companies have to sign up to article 7 of the national intelligence law but that law requires all Chinese companies, if asked by the Chinese Government, to hand over any data that they are asked to hand over. There is no dividing line within China."
A spokesperson for TikTok told GMB: "Independent experts have consistently found that TikTok does not collect any more data than comparable apps such as Facebook or Instagram. We do not provide UK user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked. We are keen to have a candid discussion with Ms Kearns to clear up any misconceptions and address her concerns about TikTok."
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