ByteDance, the parent company behind the popular TikTok platform, has just continued to be embroiled in a legal scandal in the US for allegedly collecting “unauthorized” users’ biometric data without consent.
Specifically, a group of users in the state of Illinois (USA) have filed a lawsuit against ByteDance, alleging that the Chinese company secretly collected facial scans and other sensitive data through CapCut, a video customization application. are very popular. The plaintiff argued that ByteDance violated the “Biometric Information Privacy Act” (Biometric Information Privacy Act – (BIPA) of the state of Illinois when collecting personal data such as facial scans, voice … without notice or permission of the user.
If you do not know, CapCut is a video editing application that currently has more than 200 million weekly users. The lawsuit alleges that CapCut collects detailed information about users’ location, date of birth, gender, and even photos and videos.
In addition, the plaintiff also claims that ByteDance’s application is capable of collecting data from users’ devices, including MAC addresses (a 12-string sequence of mobile device identifiers when connecting to an internal network). or Internet) and SIM serial number.
Although the collection of information has been mentioned in the application’s terms of use, the plaintiff argues that the privacy policy on CapCut is intentionally designed to make users feel confused, no explicitly and reluctantly agree, even though they don’t really want to. More importantly, ByteDance is said to transfer the user data it collects to a server located in China.
This is not the first time ByteDance and TikTok have been caught up in allegations of unauthorized user data collection. The Chinese company regularly has to attend hearings and convince US regulators that TikTok does not pose a national security threat. At a congressional hearing earlier this year, TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew stated that “ByteDance is not a spy of China or any other country”. However, the CEO also admitted that a small amount of platform user data is still stored at ByteDance headquarters in China.