Updates

TikTok Secretly Collected Device Data in Android App in Violation of Google Policies

  August 11, 2020   News Stories

TikTok collected device-specific addresses of users’ smartphones via its Android app for at least 15 months over 2018-19, using a technique that Google had banned developers from using without user consent, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

TikTok tracked Android phones’ MAC (media access control) addresses — unique hardware identifiers assigned to a network interface — possibly for advertising purposes, per the Journal story. TikTok stopped the practice in November 2019, after U.S. scrutiny over the app ramped up. The popular video-sharing app is facing a potential ban in the U.S. over national-security concerns, given its ownership by Chinese internet giant ByteDance.

Read more at Variety.

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