On Tuesday, January 17, 2023, the University of Texas at Austin announced that it has blocked TikTok access across the university’s networks. According to the announcement to its users, “You are no longer able to access TikTok on any device if you are connected to the university via its wired or WIFI networks.” The measure
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Nineteen States Have Banned TikTok on Government-Issued Devices
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity
Governors of numerous states have issued Executive Orders in the past several weeks banning TikTok from government-issued devices and many have already implemented a ban, with others considering similar measures. There is also bi-partisan support of a ban in the Senate, which unanimously approved a bill last week that would ban the app from devices…
FCC Bans Import of Chinese Technology
Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will categorically ban devices over national security concerns for the first time in history. Per a new order, the FCC will prohibit the import and sale of devices produced by Huawei and ZTE, and restrict the use of several other Chinese-produced devices for government and critical infrastructure purposes. Huawei…
South Dakota Governor Bans State Workers from Using TikTok
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Cybersecurity, Data Privacy
It is estimated that some 80 million Americans and more than one billion people use TikTok. It is well known that TikTok has a direct connection to the Chinese Communist Party, which is a foreign adversary of the U.S. This week, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed an executive order banning all state workers or…
Privacy Tip #350 – Let’s All Ban the Use of TikTok Voluntarily
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
I continue to marvel at how many Americans are using TikTok but are oblivious to the fact that they are being duped by one of our foreign adversaries—the Chinese Communist Party. Folks, listen to and heed the warnings of both state and federal governments on the dangers that the use of TikTok poses to national…
The FCC Wants You to Delete TikTok
Posted in Data Security
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr asserted that TikTok poses an “unacceptable national security risk” in a letter to the CEOs of Google and Apple urging the companies to remove the app from their mobile app stores. According to Carr, TikTok’s history of “surreptitious access of private and sensitive U.S. user data by persons located in Beijing…
Privacy Tip #248 – Social Media Data Leak Exposes Millions of User Profiles
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
If you use social media frequently, especially TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, you may want to take note of a recent report by a security research team at Comparitech that an unsecured database has exposed 235 million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube user profiles. The exposed information may have included profile names, real names, profile photos, and…
Tech Company Execs Sweat Personal Liability for Privacy Violations
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in New + Now
In the Privacy Law classes I teach in the Brown University Executive Masters of Cybersecurity and at Roger Williams University School of Law, we discuss the enforcement authority that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and other federal and state agencies have over data privacy and security, including how effective…