US lawmakers target TikTok in debate over regulating data privacy

From The South China Morning Post:

…Witnesses voiced scepticism that a plan put forward by TikTok, or any bans on the short-video platform, would address concerns about data privacy, saying a blanket law that all companies gathering online user data must follow would be more effective.

“Regardless of the path chosen, it is only a partial solution,” said Brandon Pugh, policy director for cybersecurity at the R Street Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington.

He said that TikTok is just one single app from one country, but other adversarial countries and other applications also pose risks. “Taking a more holistic approach is the key to avoiding potential blind spots,” he said…

Sacks and Pugh agreed that the US should enact a comprehensive federal data privacy and security law to make America more competitive in the technology race with China and help address security threats from any origin, with the American Data Privacy and Protection Act serving as a logical example.

Pugh warned that Washington still lagged behind Beijing and Brussels in privacy legislation and was becoming an “outlier”.

“Data in the hands of an adversarial nation-state or a malicious actor can lead to devastating consequences,” he said…

Representative Debbie Lesko, a Republican from Arizona, asked Pugh if users of the Google-owned autonomous driving service Waymo should be concerned about their data winding up in China since the service is a joint venture with the Chinese automaker Geely.

Pugh declined to comment specifically on the Waymo-Geely venture but said: “What I can say at a high level is that when the Chinese government does have involvement with the company, it’s something we need to be very careful and mindful of and ensure that they’re not collecting data and then sure that it’s not going back to the CCP…”