TikTok Tracked UK Journalist via her Cat’s Account

Cristina Criddle, a technology correspondent for the Financial Times, received a call from TikTok two days before Christmas, informing her that four employees (two in China and two in the US) had successfully accessed user data from her personal account without her knowledge or consent. Cristina found this experience “chilling,” “horrible,” and personally violating. 

While She received the information she was at her family home with her teenage sister and cousins, all avid TikTok users who were concerned by the news. Despite TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, consistently denying such occurrences, Cristina decided to speak with BBC News. 

During the summer, TikTok’s internal audit department tracked Cristina’s IP address and matched it with the IP data of some staff members to identify who was meeting with the press in secret. TikTok acknowledged that this action was unauthorized and an abuse of authority. 

Cristina is unsure about the duration and frequency of the tracking, but she knows her location was monitored around the clock, even in her personal life. For instance, when she was with friends or on vacation. Cristina feels that it is not acceptable to monitor her activities, whether work-related or not. 

“I was at my family home with my teenage sister, teenage cousins – and they all use TikTok all of the time. They were like, ‘Whoa, should we

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