US: Over two dozen state govts use trackers made by TikTok’s parent company, says report

Over two dozen state governments in the United States have placed web-tracking code made by TikTok's parent company ByteDance on their official websites. Citing a report from Toronto-based company Feroot Security, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday (March 21) that a review of websites of over 3,500 companies, organisations and governments entities by Feroot found that the so-called tracking pixels from ByteDance were present in 30 American state government websites across 27 states, including those where TikTok was banned from state networks and devices.

The report said that administrators who manage government websites use such pixels to help measure the effectiveness of advertising they have purchased on TikTok. This helps government agencies determine how many people saw an advertisement on the social media platform and took an action such as visiting a website or signing up for a service.

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The report added that pixels' proliferation offers another vector for data collection beyond TikTok's mobile app, which has been severely criticised in the US as a possible way for China to collect data on American citizens.

Feroot's Chief Executive Ivan Tsarynny said that TikTok's pixels could be watching and recording people when they are reviewing their driver's licence, paying taxes or filing out doctors' forms. Tsarynny said that pixels should be removed from the websites of government agencies and companies which collect personal details.

Security experts have pointed out that while web-tracking pixels ostensibly aim to better pinpoint advertising, they also pose privacy threats.

Replicating a sampling of Feroot Security's findings, The Wall Street Journal identified TikTok tracking pixel in the code of a Maryland Department of Health Covid website and a Utah government website aimed at helping job seekers. Recently, both Maryland and Utah issued executive orders banning TikTok from state-owned devices and networks.

However, this tracking pixel remained embedded in these two websites as recently as last week.

Speaking to the publication, a spokesperson from the Utah Department of Workforce Services said that the department works with an advertising agency to run educational campaigns that inform the state's residents about how to access programmes that could help them get a better jobs. The spokesperson added the tracking pixel was used in such a campaign.

On the other hand, a spokesperson from Maryland's health department said that the pixel on its website was part of an advertising campaign launched in August and the state was investigating why it remained on the site after the campaign ended. The spokesperson added that the pixel was removed as of March 17.

A spokesperson from TikTok, meanwhile, said that the data that the platform receives from advertisers are used to improve the effectiveness of our advertising services.

“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," the spokesperson added.

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