section_path: Privacy and security concerns/Project Texas
section_name: Project Texas
paragraph_text: Project Texas
  
  In response to security concerns of the United States government, TikTok has been working to silo privileged user data within the United States under oversight from the U.S. government or a third party such as Oracle. Named Project Texas, the initiative focuses on unauthorized access, state influence, and software security. A new subsidiary, TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. (USDS), was created to manage user data, software code, back-end systems, and content moderation. It would report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), not ByteDance or TikTok, even for hiring practices. Oracle would review and spot check the data flows through USDS. It would also digitally sign software code, approve updates, and oversee content moderation and recommendation. Physical locations would be established so that Oracle and the U.S. government could conduct their own reviews. The company has been engaged in confidential negotiations over the project with CFIUS since 2021 and submitted its proposal but received little response from the panel afterward.
  
  In March 2023, a former employee of the company said Project Texas did not go far enough and that a complete "re-engineering" would be needed. TikTok responded by saying that Project Texas already is a re-engineering of the app and that the former employee left in 2022 before the project specifications were finalized. Other former employees had their own takes on the situation. A data scientist said U.S. user data were emailed to ByteDance workers in China to identify viewer interests. A manager recounted that there was a lot more separation on the technical side between TikTok and ByteDance by the time he left. Another said TikTok had to employ better data collection practices than Meta or Google due to the scrutiny it received.
  
  In response to security concerns of the United States government, TikTok has been working to silo privileged user data within the United States under oversight from the U.S. government or a third party such as Oracle. Named Project Texas, the initiative focuses on unauthorized access, state influence, and software security. A new subsidiary, TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. (USDS), was created to manage user data, software code, back-end systems, and content moderation. It would report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), not ByteDance or TikTok, even for hiring practices. Oracle would review and spot check the data flows through USDS. It would also digitally sign software code, approve updates, and oversee content moderation and recommendation. Physical locations would be established so that Oracle and the U.S. government could conduct their own reviews. The company has been engaged in confidential negotiations over the project with CFIUS since 2021 and submitted its proposal but received little response from the panel afterward.
  
  In March 2023, a former employee of the company said Project Texas did not go far enough and that a complete "re-engineering" would be needed. TikTok responded by saying that Project Texas already is a re-engineering of the app and that the former employee left in 2022 before the project specifications were finalized. Other former employees had their own takes on the situation. A data scientist said U.S. user data were emailed to ByteDance workers in China to identify viewer interests. A manager recounted that there was a lot more separation on the technical side between TikTok and ByteDance by the time he left. Another said TikTok had to employ better data collection practices than Meta or Google due to the scrutiny it received.