If you’re a TikTok user, you’ll have accepted the ‘Terms of Service’ before you ever liked a single video on the platform.
The wording is long-winded and full of legal terms, which is why few people ever read it – but if you don’t, you won’t know how much information you’ve willingly signed away.
Oliver from CyberNut discusses the data TikTok is collecting about you – and whether you should be concerned.
What Does TikTok Know About You?
Oliver says, ‘The Terms of Service, when accepted, enable TikTok to access your phone contacts and calendars, in addition to the information asked for when setting up and using your account.’
This means TikTok has:
- Your email address and phone number
Your date of birth and profile information - Your browser and search history
TikTok finds out what operating system you use and can track your device usage. It studies the kinds of videos you’re viewing, and how long you use TikTok for.
Additionally, TikTok assesses the content of your own videos, including the scenery, objects, and words spoken.
Why Does TikTok Gather This Information?
Social media companies like TikTok harness user data to improve their programs and tailor the content you see to your preferences (including by targeting you with personalized ads). TikTok uses GPS data and biometric (face and voice) information to enhance the user experience by further targeting you with ads or content.
Oliver says, ‘Camera and microphone access is needed for creating and uploading photos and videos. Some keystroke patterns or rhythms are recorded for ‘security and performance purposes’ – though it’s not always entirely clear what these are.’
What Are The Concerns?
According to Oliver, TikTok can:
- Read your private messages
- Edit your post content for any reason
- Unexpectedly remove your content without reason
- Collect, share, and use your location data
Oliver says, ‘Western governments increasingly worry that TikTok collects more data than Whatsapp or Facebook. They fear that it’s secretly providing the information to the Chinese government – even though they deny this is happening.’
How To Safeguard Your Privacy
Here are Oliver’s key tips to protect your privacy on TikTok:
- Study the Terms of Service (or read online explanations of them) to see what data you’re giving up
- Turn off personalized ads to stop them from tracking and targeting you
- Manage TikTok permissions and Location Services to block what the app can access
- Make your account private and hide your activity status
- Turn off contacts syncing so TikTok can’t look at your contacts and calendar
- Limit TikTok’s data collection using other privacy-focused smartphone apps or web browser plugins
Oliver says,
‘Your data is safest if you don’t share it on apps such as TikTok. Not being connected on these social media platforms can be a challenge in this day and age, however – especially if you need to use TikTok for your job or business. By taking the above steps, however, you can enjoy its content with enhanced protection.’
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