Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 31 to 35.

Many countries are concerned about TikTok's security

The US

The United States took one more step towards becoming the possible first country to ban the social media app TikTok over privacy concerns. On Tuesday, April 23, Congress approved legislation which would force the Chinese owner of the app ByteDance to sell the platform within nine months or face a ban.

Several countries have banned it on government devices, fearing that sensitive information could be exposed TikTok disputes accusations that it collects more user data than other social media companies and has called the bans "basic misinformation," saying these had been decided with "no deliberation or evidence".

TikTok is owned by the Chinese technology company Bytedance but it insists it is run independently and does not share data with the Chinese government. It is currently carrying out a project to store US user data in Texas, which it says will put it out of China’s reach. However, many countries remain cautious about the platform and its ties to China. Western technology companies, including Airbnb, Yahoo, and LinkedIn, have also been leaving China or downsizing operations there because of Beijing's strict privacy law, which specifies how companies can collect and store data.

Australia

On April 4, Australia banned TikTok from all federal government-owned devices over security concerns.

A notice issued by the Attorney General’s Department said TikTok poses security and privacy risks due to the "extensive collection of user data and exposure to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflicts with Australian law". Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement that based on intelligence and security agencies’ advice, the ban would come into effect "as soon as practicable".

The UK

On March 16, Oliver Dowden, the UK Secretary of State in the Cabinet Office, announced in a statement to the UK's House of Commons an immediate ban of the app on government official devices. "This is a precautionary move. We know that there is already limited use of TikTok across government, but it is also good cyber hygiene," the minister said in his address to MPs. The ban is based on a report by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, which found "there could be a risk around how sensitive government data is accessed and used by certain platforms".

In short, many countries worry about TikTok's safety. The US might ban it, and Australia and the UK already banned it on government devices. Even though TikTok says it's safe and plans to store US data in the US, people are still unsure because it's owned by a Chinese company. This shows how countries are being careful about Chinese tech companies and protecting their data.

( Source from euronews )

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