Security News > 2021 > March > TikTok no worse than Facebook for privacy, says Citizen Lab (although Chinese TikTok is a horror)

TikTok is likely no more of a threat to users than Facebook, according to an analysis by academic research group Citizen Lab that analyzed the video-sharing social networking service's app to probe for security, privacy and censorship issues.

The authors considered both TikTok - the app available outside China - and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

TikTok has a bad reputation that saw it land in court over privacy concerns and eventually settle for under $100m to put multiple privacy-related class actions to bed.

"Despite these actions, there has been limited technical research on TikTok. Even less attention has been given to Douyin, the version of TikTok made for the Chinese market," Citizen Lab said in an FAQ accompanying of the report.

TikTok and Douyin share much of their source code, leaving Citizen Lab to speculate one code base is modified to meet country regulations and market needs.

Citizen Lab further revealed that there is a separate version of the TikTok app for East and Southeast Asia, suggesting an emphasis on the region.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/03/23/tiktok_privacy_report_citizenlab/