ByteDance Staffers Inappropriately Accessed TikTok User Data (1)

TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd. found that some employees inappropriately gained access to data for some American users, complicating the Chinese technology giant’s already-fraught efforts to convince US lawmakers that its app is secure.

“The individuals involved misused their authority to obtain access to TikTok user data,” Shou Chew, chief executive officer of the popular mobile video-sharing app, told employees in a memo viewed by Bloomberg.

The data access stemmed from an internal ByteDance investigation launched over the summer to discover the source of employee leaks to the press. Members of ByteDance’s internal audit team responsible for the probe ...