TikTok, Zoom, House Party: Why people end up with everyone at home, a handful of apps have grown in importance as few have seen. Connecting friends and workplaces is the very essential Zoom, the hugely popular video conferencing application that helps millions of workplaces run smoothly at home. Tik Tok and Houseparty provide hours of entertainment for kids and adults, with hours of content and games to play and share.

But experts are concerned about the rapid increase in these applications, citing glaring security breaches and privacy concerns. Some even discourage users from having these applications on their devices. Here’s what you need to know.

TikTok

The Chinese social media giant belongs to 800 million users this year. It took Instagram more than six years to reach that number, compared to the three years since Tiktok was launched.

Experts have noted and expressed privacy and security concerns along the same lines as the US-Huawei debacle. The Tik Tok app started as Musical.ly, a popular app that allows users to create homemade karaoke videos with 60 million users. It was acquired by the Chinese company ByteDance in 2017 for around $ 1 billion, which merged it with its similar service, Tiktok. The rest is history.

US lawmakers fear that TikTok poses a national security problem. Check Point cybersecurity researchers discovered alarming weaknesses in the TikTok system that allowed them to take control of accounts, delete videos, and make content private. They were also able to retrieve users’ personal information, such as names and dates of birth. A summary has been sent to the United States Department of Homeland Security.

It extends to threatening freedom of expression, if the content is moderated in secret. If freedom of expression is compromised, it could threaten elections and the growing flow of political messages that use the platform.

The elephant in the room remains China’s national intelligence legislation which may compel companies to comply with data collection for the authorities, which compromises the privacy of its users.

Owners ByteDance said the Chinese government does not interfere with TikTok content, as videos of the Hong Kong protest are kept online. They responded with a series of transparency measures in the United States, including information on the application’s source code and details on security. TikTok, Zoom, House Party: Why do people get

By newsnit