TikTok, formerly Musical.ly, is a Chinese iOS and Android social media video app for creating and sharing funny, short lip-sync and talent videos that are now being looked into by US regulators for potential national security risks because of its access to American data.

Because of this, ByteDance, Tiktok's parent company is in the hot seat.

US regulators' move coincides with their ongoing probe on their own Big Tech on the potential dangers of digital data because of the vulnerabilities they have.

Mario Mancuso, who leads the international trade and national security practice at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis acknowledged that the enticing aspect of technology over the past 20 years was being able to build a business model and monetize around personal data.

He added that this year, CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) is making clear that personal data can also be a very powerful risk.

TikTok is a hit with millennials because it allows its millions of users to record 15-second clips accompanied by tunes.

CFIUS has contacted Bytedance over concerns that its acquisition of the social media app Musical.ly, now TikTok, poses a national security risk.

The inquiry stems in part from the dangers the committee perceives from the Chinese government's access to the app's data and user profiles.

A person familiar with the matter said that after a number of US lawmakers, including D-N.Y. and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an inquiry into the company, CFIUS contacted Bytedance.

Scott Flicker, chairman of the Washington office at law firm Paul Hastings said that when the Musical.ly deal with ByteDance closed two years ago, there wasn't any indication that CFIUS will get involved.

In September just this year, CFIUS, chaired by the US Treasury Department, defined companies under its watch being those with access to "sensitive populations" or those with more than 1 million accounts.

Globally, ByteDance's apps too which TikTok is part of, have 1.5 billion monthly active users.

Of the same magnitude when it comes to the number of users is Facebook which has 2.7 billion monthly users across its products and Google with 1.5 billion global active users.

Paul Marquardt, a partner at law firm Cleary Gottlieb, commented that it is not clear if CFIUS's focus will be on cybersecurity and espionage or if it intends to target big data.

Everyone cannot help but think of the global economic and political struggles playing out in the background.

Even if CFIUS is an independent agency, it is operating in America and currently, the US and China are in high-stakes talks over trade and internet issues.

Though the company "cannot comment on ongoing regulatory processes," a spokesperson for TikTok said that they "have no higher priority than earning the trust of users and regulators in the US."