TikTok Trackers Embedded in U.S. State-government Websites, Review Finds

upstart writes:

State governments might be inadvertently helping Chinese-owned app in data collection:

More than two dozen state government websites contain web-tracking code made by TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd., according to a new report from a cybersecurity company, illustrating the difficulties U.S. regulators face in curtailing data-collection efforts by the popular Chinese-owned app.

A review of the websites of more than 3,500 companies, organizations and government entities by the Toronto-based company Feroot Security found that so-called tracking pixels from the TikTok parent company were present in 30 U.S. state-government websites across 27 states, including some where the app has been banned from state networks and devices. Feroot collected the data in January and February of this year.

[...] Site administrators usually place such pixels on the government websites to help measure the effectiveness of advertising they have purchased on TikTok. It helps government agencies determine how many people saw an ad on the social-media app and took some action-such as visiting a website or signing up for a service. The pixels' proliferation offers another vector for data collection beyond TikTok's popular mobile app, which is increasingly under fire in Washington as a possible way for the Chinese government to collect data on Americans.

[...] "Like other platforms, the data we receive from advertisers is used to improve the effectiveness of our advertising services," a TikTok spokeswoman said in a statement. "Our terms instruct advertisers not to share certain data with us, and we continuously work with our partners to avoid inadvertent transmission of such data."

[...] Tracking pixels, also called web beacons, are ubiquitous on commercial websites. The free bits of software code are intended to support digital marketing and advertising by logging a visitor's interactions with the site, such as what is clicked on and the duration of a visit.

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