TikTok’s international safety chief is stepping down amid US consumer information controversy | Engadget

international chief safety officer (CSO) will step down from that place and shift right into a strategic advisory function. Roland Cloutier’s change in duties follows issues about how the corporate is dealing with US consumer information. TikTok that workers outdoors of the nation had been capable of entry that info, though “robust cybersecurity controls and authorization” from its US safety group had been required.

Cloutier will likely be an adviser on the enterprise impression of TikTok’s safety and belief applications. TikTok’s head of safety danger, vendor and consumer assurance, Kim Albarella, will take over because the chief of the corporate’s worldwide safety groups on an interim foundation.

“Part of our evolving approach has been to minimize concerns about the security of user data in the US, including the creation of a new department to manage US user data for TikTok,” CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote to TikTok workers. “This is an important investment in our data protection practices, and it also changes the scope of the global chief security officer role. With this in mind, Roland has decided to step back from his day-to-day operations as global CSO, effective September 2nd.”

A TikTok spokesperson advised The Wall Street Journal Cloutier wasn’t overseeing the brand new group that manages US consumer information. That division stories to Chew straight. Cloutier’s departure wasn’t associated to lawmakers’ issues over US information safety, the spokesperson stated, and the shift had been within the works for a few months.

Last month, reported that China-based engineers at TikTok’s father or mother firm ByteDance accessed private information on US TikTok customers on a number of events between not less than final September and January. TikTok stated it is now storing all US customers’ information on Oracle cloud servers positioned within the nation and that it was working to take away such personal information from its personal servers. In a letter to a bunch of Republican senators this month, Chew the corporate is concentrated on eradicating “any doubt about the security of US user data.”

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