The US Takeover of TikTok Causes Significant Privacy Change: New Clauses Permit Tracking of Precise GPS, Race, and Health Information
As TikTok moves under Oracle’s American ownership, users are alerting one another to the fine print in its required policy update.
U.S. users were compelled to accept new terms in a TikTok privacy policy upgrade, which raised questions about sensitive data collecting and accurate GPS monitoring.
In order to meet requests from the US government, a group of investors, including Oracle, founded the recently established TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. However, since the app’s data collecting capabilities go well beyond 15-second dance video, the fine print of the new privacy policy has immediately raised concerns.
One of the most startling changes is the move to “granular” monitoring from broad city-level observation. “If you choose to enable location services for the TikTok app within your device settings, we collect approximate or precise location information from your device,” the New Privacy Policy states explicitly, changing the previous one’s statement that “Current versions of the app do not collect precise or approximate GPS information from US users.”
Concerns over “sensitive” data points have been raised by the new phrases, which go beyond precise coordinates. The platform now provides the foundation to track highly personal identifiers, such as: Users are pointing out that
• Demographics include citizenship or immigration status, race, and religious beliefs.
• Identity: a user’s sexual orientation, preferences, and if they identify as nonbinary or transgender.
• Health: Diagnoses for both physical and mental conditions.
The upgrade also highlights artificial intelligence. “AI interactions, including prompts, questions, files, and other types of information that you submit to our AI-powered interfaces, as well as the responses they generate” is how the New Privacy Policy describes all interactions with the app’s AI features. A prompt’s “how, when, where, and by whom” metadata is included so that your digital footprint can be linked straight to your account.
Additionally, advertising is being significantly upgraded at the expense of customer privacy. Now, TikTok will use your information to target you on the “TikTok Ad Network elsewhere online.” According to the New Privacy Policy, “We receive information about you and your activities outside of our websites and apps from advertisers, publishers, measurement, and other partners.” Ads are shown to you even when you aren’t looking at your “For You” page since it builds a complete profile of the websites you visit, the goods you purchase, and the apps you download.
Although the app appears to be unchanged, the move to USDS Joint Venture LLC ushers in a new age of data collecting at the surveillance level. For many, clicking the “Agree” button now signifies a complete surrender of personal data rather than just a formality.
