In a class-action lawsuit, California university student has accused video app TikTok of harvesting a large amount of user data <https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3040547/university-student-sues-tiktok-us-over-alleged-transfer-data> and storing it in China. *Agence France-Presse* reports that the student, Misty Hong, filed the suit on behalf of the approximately 110 million U.S. residents who have downloaded the app, which is especially popular with teenagers around the world. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok surreptitiously has taken user content including draft videos never meant for publication without their knowledge or consent. The complaint also alleges that the app’s first issue was that it did not create adequate safeguards to stop minors <https://gizmodo.com/tiktok-sued-over-claims-that-app-tracked-collected-an-1840181819> from utilizing the app, according to Gizmodo. The company, which was launched by Chinese company ByteDance in September 2017, has distanced itself from Chinese authorities, maintaining that its servers are located outside the country and therefore its data is not subject to Chinese law. TikTok app hit 1.5 billion downloads worldwide in November, outperforming Instagram. The U.S government opened a national security investigation into the company in early November, the *New York Times* reported.
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