TikTok has announced that its global chief security officer, Roland Cloutier, will step down on Sept. 2 as the company looks to address concerns about how it manages user data.
"With our recent announcement about data management changes in the US," Cloutier said in a statement published on TikTok's website, "it's time for me to transition from my role as Global Chief Security Officer into a strategic advisory role focusing on the business impact of security and trust programs, working directly with Shou, Dingkun and other senior leaders."
The announcement follows mounting scrutiny of the way TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, handles American user data. BuzzFeed reported in June that ByteDance engineers in China had access to "everything" despite repeated assurances that a security team based in the US decided who should be able to obtain data about users located within the country.
FCC commissioner Brendan Carr responded by publicly asking Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores. Such a request would typically come from the FTC instead of the FCC, however, as Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mark Warner (D-VA) acknowledged when they asked the FTC to investigate ByteDance a few weeks after BuzzFeed published its report.
TikTok responded by publishing more information about how it manages data about users in the US. Now the company says it's planning to make additional changes to quell these concerns.
"Part of our evolving approach has been to minimize concerns about the security of user data in the US," the company said in a statement, "including the creation of a new department to manage US user data for TikTok. This is an important investment in our data protection practices, and it also changes the scope of the Global Chief Security Officer (CSO) role."
TikTok says that Kim Albarella, its head of security risk, vendor and quality assurance, will serve as the interim head of global security "to help ensure a smooth transition while we maintain a strong focus on data privacy and security excellence."