At several points, Chew avoided direct questions about whether TikTok sells the data it collects.
“I believe we do not sell data to any data brokers,” Chew said in response to a question from Rep. Frank Pallone. “I didn’t ask you about data brokers,” Pallone said. “Do you sell it to anyone?”
“Congressman, I actually am in support of some rules…” Chew responded before another interruption from Pallone. “I didn’t ask you about rules, I asked you whether the company TikTok would commit to not sell data to anyone.”
“I can get back to you on the details,” Chew said.
While many companies sell data, most major social networks like Facebook don’t, as it would be too valuable to their competitors. There’s more money to be made by hoarding personal information. It would be a shocking departure from the norm if TikTok did sell data. During Mark Zuckerberg’s own congressional testimony in 2019, the CEO stressed that selling data isn’t part of Meta’s business. “We don’t sell people’s data, even though it’s often reported that we do.” Google makes similar promises.
“As we state in our privacy policy, we do not sell personal information,” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said in an email. TikTok said that the definition of the word sell is up for debate, as California’s privacy law defines any transmission of data for advertising purposes as a “sale.” The company clarified that it does use data for targeted advertising, but does not exchange data for money.
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