Roland Cloutier, TikTok’s international safety director, quits as the corporate strikes to utilizing US Oracle servers to retailer US information (by way of The Wall Avenue Journal). The corporate shared an inside word concerning the change in a submit in its newsroom stating that Cloutier will tackle the function of advisor, with TikTok head of safety threat, provider and buyer insurance coverage, Kim Albarella, quickly taking the lead.
“With our current announcement of modifications in US information administration, it is time to transfer from my function as International Chief Safety Officer to a strategic advisory function, specializing in the enterprise affect of safety and belief packages.” working instantly with Shou, Dingkun and different senior leaders, ”Cloutier wrote in his memoir. Cloutier, who has been working with TikTok since 2020, will formally resign on September 2.
In June, TikTok introduced that it had begun directing US consumer information to Oracle servers, in an try and allay fears that China – the place TikTok’s dad or mum firm, ByteDance, is headquartered – has limitless entry to this data. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and ByteDance Vice President of Expertise Dingkun Hong say the change comes as a technique to “decrease considerations about consumer information safety within the US,” but additionally “change the scope of International Chief Safety Officer (CSO). function.”
A TikTok spokeswoman stated WSJ that Cloutier was not concerned in managing the brand new TikTok division devoted to managing US consumer information. She additionally defined that this organizational change was underway months earlier than American politicians turned up the warmth on TikTok.
For years, TikTok has been beneath scrutiny for its hyperlinks to China-based ByteDance, with some US officers accusing the appliance of transferring US information to the Chinese language authorities. Final month, BuzzFeed Information has launched a report claiming that TikTok staff in China have “repeatedly” accessed US consumer information from a minimum of September 2021 to January 2022.
In response to the report, a bunch of Republican senators wrote a letter to TikTok questioning the validity of the corporate’s testimony on information confidentiality throughout a listening to in October final yr. TikTok responded to these considerations earlier this month, reiterating its plans to work with Oracle to “totally shield consumer information.”