TikTok employees in five different countries, including China, can access the data of New Zealand users, as privacy concerns grow over the video-sharing app.

The social media giant, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has maintained data from New Zealand is stored in Singapore and United States, with access only approved by its “global security organisation led out of the U.S.”

Newstalk ZB can now reveal that engineering teams around the world are able to get this access sign-off, including workers in the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Ireland.

A spokesperson for TikTok told ZB “strict policies and procedures” are in place to “limit internal access to user data.”

Netsafe's Chief Content Officer Leanne Ross joined Simon Barnett & James Daniels on the show.

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