They point out that TikTok's parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been accused of working with the Chinese government to censor content and could also collect sensitive data on users.To date, at least 14 U.S. states have enacted legislation or created rules blocking government computers' access to the app, and a bipartisan bill introduced last week in Congress seeks a ban on the app for all U.S. users.The Chinese government has a long history of intellectual property theft, so the scope of what they're looking for goes well beyond classified information or disruptive attacks, but extends to industrial espionage to obtain proprietary information.Many people don't realize that they, their friends, family, neighbors or associates are likely to have something that the Chinese government wants and that can compromise or damage the United States.Although the legal aspects of this are outside of my areas of expertise, I would venture to say that all bets are off when it comes to the Chinese government gaining access to Americans' personal information, regardless of the attempts to set up a legal framework for that access."