Following a ban of TikTok, and other foreign owned-apps, on state systems by Governor Larry Hogan today, WMAR-2 News reached out to a cybersecurity expert to better understand the security concerns.
Anton Dahbura, the Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute tells us the main concerns with TikTok are that it's owned by a Chinese company, and that it could access your location.
"It may seem innocuous," he says. "Location is actually a very valuable piece of information that can be used against us."
Dahbura added that this can be of particular concern if a person works at a military base, state facility or a sensitive facility.
"TikTok has the potential to grab that information and send it to places and be used in ways that we really don't want that information to be used."
And while other apps, like Twitter, Facebook and Google also track data like location, Dahbura says "the difference here is that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company ByteDance and.. there are direct ties back to China."
While people who don't feel like they'd be a target for a state actor like China might be apathetic to security concerns, he warns that this could be a dangerous stance.
"Apathy is the friend of people who are looking for this kind of information," says Dahbura.
Turning off your location settings on your phone may help make apps like TikTok safer.
"But if you have anything, if you are involved in any activities that are considered sensitive, or where you could put your company at risk.. you probably shouldn't be using TikTok until we get a clear signal from the authorities that it's safe to do so," he says.
