>how about the US government put a firm privacy policy that forbids TikTok, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and co from collecting excessive data on users
Because the U.S. has access to and therefore benefits from the data that these companies collect. The exception on that list is TikTok - the U.S. can't access that data, but their rival can. That's why they're keen on banning it.
Does anyone really think the NSA are not able to access Tiktok? Or that Chinese equivalent orgs are not able to access Facebook etc? Really?
This whole thing is just the cultural side of people pushing a new cold war for self serving purposes (increase my budget, grant me more powers, buy my newspaper etc).
I'm not saying China is great, I'm just saying this seems very much like a made up issue to me.
Everyone is hacking everyone. For true matters of intelligence gathering and national security physical location is no serious object. If it's on a server it's accessible to us, the Russians, the Chinese, etc. etc, basically public. But, and this is a thicc but, the US government and its various enforcement arms really like having a domestic data pile because they can trawl through it some veneer of legal legitimacy. Google's data is only a rubber stamp warrant away and that data can then be used in court. The same is not true for offshore providers like Tiktok. Sure they could probably get access if it's in a friendly country but that's a much higher more expensive bar.
Basically the discussion we're having about Tiktok is the discussion we'd be having about all these data haystacks if it weren't for the fact that there are powerful government interests that like the domestic haystacks.
Because the U.S. has access to and therefore benefits from the data that these companies collect. The exception on that list is TikTok - the U.S. can't access that data, but their rival can. That's why they're keen on banning it.