Risky China apps need India-style action: FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr told ET. The US and other countries are still grappling with the alleged privacy risks associated with Chinese apps such as TikTok.

The latest tool that has come under the scanner from the ByteDance stable is the video editing app CapCut where users have filed a class-action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois accusing it of illegally profiting from sensitive personal data. «India's early and thoughtful approach to insecure Chinese apps set a standard that the rest of the world should now follow—and fast,» Carr said.

«Apps that are ultimately beholden to the Communist Party of China have a proven track record of surreptitious data collections and accessing more data than necessary for the app to function. None of that can be separated from the broader security threats posed by those apps.” The FCC is an independent US government agency and the primary authority for communications law, regulation and technological innovation.

The class-action lawsuit, which has been filed by US-based consumer rights attorneys at litigation firm Hagens Berman on July 28, 2023 alleged that CapCut and its parent company ByteDance, which also owns TikTok, illegally harvest and profit from user data including biometric information and geolocation. It accuses the companies of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as various state consumer protection and data privacy laws, and also alleges that CapCut and ByteDance make sensitive user data available to the Chinese government for surveillance and other purposes.