Amazon has told its employees to delete viral video app, TikTok from their phones. The New York Times reports that the company cites the security risks of the app being on the official devices of its employees.
Despite the ban on mobile devices, Amazon says its employees can still use the app on their laptops.
“Due to security risks, the TikTok app is no longer permitted on mobile devices that access Amazon email. If you have TikTok on your device, you must remove it by 10-Jul to retain mobile access to Amazon email. At this time, using TikTok from your Amazon laptop browser is allowed,” the company said in an email to its employees.
Snapshots of the mail have appeared on Twitter with people posting Amazon’s statement.
Amazon just banned TikTok from all employee phones https://t.co/rl9OEQ0G7G
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) July 10, 2020
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This comes as a potential ban is looming over the company in the United States. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said that the Trump administration was “looking at” banning TikTok.
The accusation against TikTok is that it is helping the Chinese government commit acts of espionage and stealing sensitive data. The company also faces other charges involving child privacy violations in the US.
Recently, it was also caught accessing user clipboard data when running in the background. Experts have said that this potentially could expose passwords and other sensitive data. A new feature in iOS 14, uncovered the behaviour, however, no one knows how long the app has been doing that. Although TikTok has removed the feature, the recurring issue makes the Chinese app suspect.
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