TikTok announced the resignation of its global head of security, Roland Cloutier, while the personal data of its American users are in the process of migrating to Oracl’s servers, and that the application is affected by a scandal across the Atlantic.
In June, an investigation signed buzzfeed revealed that Chinese employees of ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, repeatedly accessed non-public data on American users.
Security chief resigns as TikTok changes strategy
In an internal note, Roland Cloutier, who has held his position since 2020, explains his decision: “ With our recent announcement of data management changes in the US, it’s time for me to transition from my role as head of global security to a strategic advisor role focused on the business impact of security programs and trust, working directly with Shou, Dingkun and other leaders “. Cloutier will be replaced on an interim basis by Kim Albarella, currently global head of risk, supplier and customer security for TikTok.
“ Part of our evolutionary approach has been to minimize concerns about US user data security, including creating a new department to handle US user data for TikTok. This is a significant investment in our data protection practices, and it also changes the scope of the Global Security Officer role. With this in mind, Roland decided to take a step back from his daily activities said Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok.
He refers in particular to the social network’s announcement, made in June, of the migration of American user data to Oracle’s servers, a process mentioned since 2020 and intended to allay the concerns of the authorities of the country.
Suspicions against TikTok still alive in the United States
It was the Trump administration, in 2020 precisely, which expressed the first doubts about TikTok, then in full expansion. Its parent company, ByteDance, was indeed accused of maintaining strong relations with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and of providing it with information on the personal data of users of the application. At the time, Trump demanded a takeover of the American activities of TikTok by a firm from his country and threatened to ban it otherwise.
After many reversals of situation, TikTok continued to operate in the same way, but the recent scandal revealed by buzzfeed pushed it to change its strategy by storing Americans’ data in the United States. Despite this, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate allegations that ByteDance employees accessed data about US users.
” The problem is not the company’s security officer, it’s the company itself. Personnel changes don’t make sense as ByteDance, which has direct ties to the CCP, remains in charge despite previous claims from TikTok Republican Congressman Marco Rubio said of Cloutier’s resignation.
If the migration of data to Oracle should ease tensions, it is not certain that it will make it possible to forget the many suspicions weighing against TikTok across the Atlantic…
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Verge
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