The federal Treasurer says he is concerned that social media platform TikTok's China-based employees are able to access Australian user data.

Responding to a letter from Shadow Cyber Security Minister James Paterson, TikTok admitted its staff in China were able to access Australian data. 

"Our security teams minimise the number of people who have access to data and limit it only to people who need that access in order to do their jobs," the company's Australian director of public policy, Brent Thomas, wrote.

"We have policies and procedures that limit internal access to Australian user data by our employees, wherever they're based, based on need.

"We have never provided Australian user data to the Chinese government, we have never been asked for Australian user data by the Chinese government, and we would not provide it if we were asked."

The letter comes after reports in US media that American TikTok data was able to be accessed and had been accessed in mainland China.

Senator Paterson said TikTok's claim that Australian data cannot be compromised was not credible.

"TikTok denies they would ever hand over data to the Chinese Communist Party but this is very hard to believe given their national security laws," he wrote.

"It's time the Albanese government woke up and took action to protect the privacy of 7 million Australian users."

Chinese law requires TikTok to share user data

Chinese cyber security laws require Chinese companies to store certain data and allow Chinese authorities to conduct spot checks of their operations.

The laws also compel social media companies to hand over information if requested by Beijing.

Australian TikTok data is held on servers in the US and Singapore, and its security team, which provides authorisations, is US-based.

Mr Thomas wrote that Australian data integrity was of the "utmost importance" and at the core of its daily operations.