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The
request was in a letter by Senator Jerry Moran, chair of the
Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Senator
John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on
Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet.
The senators sought specific answers from the FTC related to a
Wall Street Journal report that described TikTok's undisclosed
collection and transmission of data from millions of U.S.
consumers until November 2019.
"There are allegations that TikTok discretely collected media
access control (MAC) addresses, commonly used for advertisement
targeting purposes ... through November 2019,” said the letter,
which was addressed to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons.
A spokeswoman for the FTC declined comment.
The letter is the latest example of Washington's mounting
scrutiny of a Chinese-owned company over national security
concerns. Under a Chinese law introduced in 2017, companies have
an obligation to support and cooperate in China's national
intelligence work.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Aug. 6 signed an executive order
prohibiting transactions with TikTok if its Chinese parent
ByteDance does not reach a deal to divest it within 45 days.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported Trump's order could prevent
U.S. app stores from offering TikTok and make advertising on the
platform illegal.
A company spokeswoman said the current TikTok app does not
collect MAC addresses.
"As the Wall Street Journal points out, the TikTok app is not
unique in the amount of information it collects, compared to
other mobile apps; however the assertions made in the article
misrepresent our intentions for using encryption."
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and David Shepardson in Washington;
editing by Grant McCool)
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