When TikTok spied on FT reporter Criddle

Cristina Criddle of The Financial Times writes about discovering that TikTok spied on her after her reporting.

Criddle writes,  “When I returned to London after the Christmas break, what had happened hit me. In a busy pizza restaurant, as I told some of my friends, I became increasingly conscious that I was in a public place. My ears seemed to fill with the conversation from other tables, and I found myself convinced that anyone could be listening in. At times I have struggled to sleep, thinking about what ByteDance employees might have found out about me. For a while, I often cancelled plans out and, whenever I spoke to or met new sources, I felt on edge.

“The FT’s cyber security team has helped me take extra precautions. On a practical level, my old device was relegated to being a dummy phone only to be used for accessing TikTok for work. Switching it on one day in February, I received a verification code, which I had not requested. Often this is sent when you log into a new device. I looked at the logged-in devices on my account and, curiously, saw an iPhone that I do not own. This suggested that a device that was not mine, was at that time, logged into my TikTok account without my knowledge, possibly monitoring activity. TikTok could not explain why another device was logged into my account at the time but said it ‘did not identify inappropriate access or inauthentic account activity in January and February.”

Read more here.