It appears President Donald Trump’s August executive order banning TikTok over security concerns won’t be happening anytime soon. But cybersecurity experts warn that we still have to worry about the viral app.
TikTok was granted a two-week extension by the US government last week to find an American buyer for the Chinese app, further extending the deadline for the ban that Trump imposed months ago.
While there was talk of a ban, it’s almost as if the government has all but forgotten about the viral app. Trump’s executive order, however, did raise awareness of TikTok’s many security issues, and the larger issue of how Americans manage their own privacy.
“[TikTok] has definitely made people aware that they need to read the terms and conditions when they download an app,” Guy Garrett, assistant director of the University of West Florida's Center for Cyber Security, said in a phone interview.