• by Wendy Davis , 2 hours ago

TikTok users who sued over allegations that its in-app browser gathered sensitive data said this week that they have withdrawn their claims because their experts determined the company did not actually collect "data of concern."

"The independent expert consultants retained by plaintiffs for this litigation have reviewed the software code used by the TikTok in-app browser that was identified in the complaint and produced by TikTok for inspection, and they have determined that this code was not used to collect the data of concern," attorneys for both sides said Tuesday in a filing with U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer in the Northern District of Illinois. 

"In view of this determination, plaintiffs and their counsel in this litigation are satisfied that further litigation of this matter is not warranted," the lawyers added.

The move comes three years after a California resident alleged in a class-action complaint that TikTok "secretly amassed massive amounts of highly invasive information and data about its users by tracking their activities on third-party websites.”

That complaint relied on research by security researcher Felix Krause, who reported in August 2022 that TikTok's in-app browser contains Javascript code that is capable of logging keystrokes on outside websites -- including sites where people enter passwords or financial information.

A TikTok spokesperson reportedly said at the time that TikTok didn't track users through the in-app browser, and that the Javascript code flagged by Krause is only used for “debugging, troubleshooting and performance monitoring.”

Last year, Pallmeyer rejected TikTok's motion to dismiss the matter at an earlier stage of proceedings. TikTok had argued to Pallmeyer that Krause reported only that TikTok could collect keystroke data -- not that the company actually recorded or transmitted the data.

Pallmeyer said at the time that Krause's report “does not definitively absolve TikTok of liability.”

“Krause only stated that he had no way of verifying, one way or the other, whether TikTok retains or uses this data -- a question that plaintiffs now seek to answer through discovery,” Pallmeyer wrote last year.