TikTok has downplayed its ties to Beijing, saying data it captures on U.S. 'This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information - potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,' the executive order reads. The possibility that it could hand over data to Chinese authorities has officials on edge, as the White House wages an intensifying trade war against China. Yet the White House says what makes TikTok distinct is that the app's terms of service state that it can share data with its parent company, ByteDance.

'In fact, many fitness apps were banned from use in the military for tracking location data, but we did not ban them from all U.S. 'While TikTok is being singled out in this executive order, their data collection and sharing practices are fairly standard in the industry,' said University of Notre Dame technology professor Kirsten Martin. TikTok is open about what data it collects, an amount that is on par with what is harvested by apps owned by American tech companies Google, Facebook and Apple. In the order, the White House says TikTok captures vast swaths of information from its users, including location data and Internet search history. It says all options are being reviewed to make sure the company and TikTok users are treated fairly 'if not by the administration, then by the U.S. TikTok added that the order 'sets a dangerous precedent for the concept of free expression and open markets.' In a statement, TikTok says it is 'shocked' by the executive order, claiming the Trump administration 'paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.'

Briefing flipboard app