Security News > 2020 > February > Sen. Schumer Pushes for TSA Employee Ban on TikTok App at Work

The Transportation Safety Authority has become the latest federal agency to ban the use of TikTok among its employees based on national-security fears over how ByteDance, the Beijing-based company that owns the app, uses the data collected by it.

Some TSA employees have used the app to create and post videos that explain the agency's boarding processes and rules, a move that raised security concerns and inspired Sen. Chuck Schumer to send TSA administrator David Pekoske a letter to stop its use, according to a report from CBS News.

Schumer's letter cited national security concerns about how TikTok collects and handles user data and personal information, as well as a Department of Homeland Security policy that already prohibits the use of TikTok on agency devices, according to the report.

"Given the widely reported threats, the already-in-place agency bans, and the existing concerns posed by TikTok, the feds cannot continue to allow the TSA's use of the platform to fly," Sen. Schumer told the AP. The TSA acknowledged that a "Small number of TSA employees" used the app on personal devices to create videos as a part of the TSA's social-media outreach, a practice that has now been halted, according to the AP. TikTok is used to create and share short form videos and has been downloaded more than 1.5 billion times.

Even if ByteDance can convince U.S. lawmakers that TikTok is not a national security threat, the app has other security issues to contend with.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/sen-schumer-pushes-for-tsa-employee-ban-on-tiktok-app-at-work/153192/