A recent report from the CIA indicates that the Chinese government has not accessed American user data from the video-sharing app TikTok.
According to The New York Times, CIA analysts told the White House that, though it is possible for Chinese officials to obtain data from users of the app, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, there is "no evidence" that China has done so.
The CIA assessment is the latest development in a long series of efforts made by American officials to distance Chinese tech firms from U.S. users over national security concerns.
TikTok will file a federal lawsuit as soon as Tuesday, challenging the U.S. president's executive order banning the video-sharing app in the United States.
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has unveiled a U.S. plan to crack down on Chinese apps and services. Dubbed the "Clean Network," the program would block "untrusted" Chinese apps from app stores.
However, experts have found that TikTok collects data in a similar manner to U.S. firms such as Facebook.
Looking away from the assessment from his own intelligence community, President Trump still moved forward with an executive order late Thursday barring U.S. companies from "any transactions" with ByteDance.
The order argues TikTok "continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States" and will go into effect on September 20.
