Editorial

Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple – in the past decades, major US tech companies have collected a gigantic treasure trove of user data. Every Google search, every conversation with Siri, every Amazon order and every post on Facebook is stored and can potentially be accessed forever. In everyday life, we have almost come to terms with this. But what happens when a Chinese company also forces its way onto our smartphones? Many young people can hardly imagine everyday life without TikTok. The company, which has a Chinese parent company, taps into users’ data on a massive scale, as Marcel Grzanna reports.