Why TikTok is a Threat to Your Privacy

At a Glance

TikTok is a popular social media app that allows users to share the latest memes, trends, and challenges. However, TikTok has been the subject of countless reports of privacy violations and security issues.

Is TikTok a threat to your privacy? Does all of the data it collects (and it collects a lot of data) go straight back to its Chinese overlords? In this article, I’ll share a close look at the social networking app, the privacy threats it poses, and what you can do to protect yourself.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a popular video-sharing social network that allows users to create their own short-format recordings, many times featuring popular dance moves, comedy, challenges, and more. TikTok was launched by Chinese company ByteDance, as a spinoff of its popular app Douyin.

TikTok has been downloaded more than 2 billion times around the globe, with 165 million downloads in the United States alone. It’s been estimated that TikTok has approximately 800 million monthly active users, 40 million of whom are in the U.S.

While TikTok has offices located in many areas of the world, its parent company is based in China. The links to China are the source of many of the privacy concerns surrounding the app.

TikTok has faced several controversies over the years, facing blocks and bans in multiple countries. Many governments and privacy experts have expressed concerns over issues of propaganda, censorship, and excessive data collection.

What Has TikTok Been Accused Of?

Investigations

There have been several investigations into TikTok and its parent company.

In October 2019, Senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire asking for an investigation into the U.S. national security risks of TikTok and other Chinese content platforms, due to concerns over how Chinese companies might be compelled to turn over information to the Chinese Communist Party for intelligence purposes, censorship, and possible influencing of voters.

In May 2020, the Dutch Data Protection Authority investigated how TikTok handles the data of young users and whether it adequately protects the privacy of children.

In June 2020, The European Data Protection Board said it would establish a task force to examine the privacy and security risks, as well as the methods it uses to collect data.

Bans

In December 2019, The U.S. Army banned soldiers from installing and using TikTok on government phones, as the app was “considered a cyber threat.” The U.S. Navy also banned TikTok from Naval phones that same month. The Australian Defence Department also does not permit TikTok on its devices.

TikTok was permanently banned in India in 2020, due to its “threat to sovereignty and national security.” The app had been estimated to have been downloaded in the country 611 million times or about 30% of total TikTok downloads around the globe.

In 2020. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban its employees from downloading and using TikTok on government phones.

Also in 2020, then President Trump issued an executive order prohibiting US-based companies and individuals from doing business with TikTok parent company ByteDance.

Lawsuits

In 2019, TikTok agreed to pay a $5.7 million fine to the US Federal Trade Commission over allegations that the app violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) due to it collecting private information from children.

A 2019 California lawsuit accused the company of secretly collecting data without proper consent and transferring it to China.

In 2020, the guardians of four minor children residing in Illinois filed suit against TikTok and parent company ByteDance, for allegedly violating Illinois law by not obtaining consent before collecting biometric identifiers.

The Possible Risks of Chinese Technology

It seems that the more reliant we grow on Chinese developers and device manufacturers, the more we worry about being monitored, how the data they harvest is used, and what we can do to protect against having our activities monitored.

This is why it is just common sense to take a close look at TikTok, who owns it, and whether or not the app is actually a tool the Chinese can use against other countries.

The Chinese government has much tighter control over its businesses than other countries have over theirs and it is debatable as to how independent Chinese businesses like ByteDance really are.

China has several laws related to the data collected by apps like TikTok, its accessibility by the government, and how companies can be easily compelled to hand over their data to Chinese authorities.

China’s 2016 Internet Security Law includes clauses that could compel Chinese-owned companies to turn over data, source code, encryption keys, and more to the government.

The country’s 2017 National Intelligence Law requires Chinese citizens and organizations to support the communist state’s intelligence work. This means that businesses may be compelled to hand over the data they collect to authorities.

This has led to concerns by the United States and numerous other countries that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance could be forced to work as an agent of the Chinese, actively working against the interests of other countries.

Is TikTok Dangerous for Children?

It seems that every generation of children has some favorite activity that is considered harmful to their mental or physical health. In the 1950s, comic books were considered harmful, in the 1960s it was television that was going to destroy our children, in the 70s and 80s it was video games that must be stopped… Well, you get the idea.

Such worries become amplified if the source of our worries is technology that was invented by and is controlled by a country that is seen as an adversary of your country, much like the U.S. and China.

Although TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin are both owned by the same company, China’s version of the app is much different from the version used in other countries, especially when it comes to children.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” former Google employee, and advocate for social media ethics, Tristan Harris says the U.S. version is different from the Chinese version, comparing the two user experiences to “opium and spinach.”

“If you’re under 14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos,” said Harris. Plus, children in China are limited to only 40 minutes a day use of the app.

Meanwhile, kids in the U.S. receive a steady diet of influencers and ridiculous challenges (even leading to eating Tide pods and the theft of a certain brand of automobiles), which are less than educational.

“It’s almost like they recognize that technology is influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world,” said Harris.

Harris noted that in a survey of U.S. and Chinese pre-teens, they were asked about the career paths they’d like to follow. While the number one answer from Chinese children was “astronaut,” Children in the U.S. wanted to be social media influencers.

“You allow those two societies to play out for a few generations and I can tell you what your world is going to look like,” said Harris.

In the U.S., kids are fed personalized and predictive content, all specifically tailored to the user by proprietary algorithms. This means that the more users search for things they like, the more the algorithm learns about them, feeding a pablum-like mixture of content to keep the child coming back for more. Also, there is no usage time limit in the TikTok app like there is in China.

Is TikTok Dangerous for Adults?

What about adults? Is TikTok dangerous for adults?

A 2022 Consumer Reports study showed that TikTok uses the same data-tracking practices as Facebook and other social networks. This means it collects as much information as it can about your online activities, your location, the websites you visit, and more.

While we have in the past raised concerns about the personal information that is collected by Facebook and other social networks, there are heightened concerns about the information TikTok collects, due to it being a Chinese-owned company.

This is despite assurances by TikTok CEO Shou Chew that “TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, US user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made.”

A recent PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll revealed that about 7 of 10 U.S. adults said TikTok does pose a threat to national security. A majority of respondents said they support a government ban of the app.

At least 14 U.S. states have banned the use of TikTok on government-issued devices. In late December 2022, Congress banned the use of the app on all federal government-provided devices.

While the U.S. government appears to be concerned about the data collected by TikTok and other social networks, it has done little to pass any laws preventing such data collection. The American Data Privacy and Protection Act, which would provide better protections for America’s privacy and national security has so far failed to make it into law.

What Data Does TikTok Collect In Its App?

TikTok has access to quite a bit of data from your use of its app. Disconnect’s CTO Patrick Jackson dug into the app and what information it collects and sends back home.

He found that it can see:

• The private messages you send in the app.
• The videos you watch and the length of the time you view them.
• Your IP address.
• Which country you’re in.

Plus, if you give it the required permissions, TikTok also collects:

• The contacts stored on your device.
• Your current location.
• Your phone number.
• Your age.
• Information from your connections to other social networks.

While Jackson found that TikTok doesn’t collect much more data than Facebook. However, they are not as upfront as Facebook when it comes to hiding what they’re collecting.

Jackson also found that TikTok sends a large amount of data back to its servers. In the first nine seconds of monitoring the app, Jackson saw more than 200 network requests, sending over 500 kilobytes of data.

Another concern that Jackson had about TikTok’s network traffic is that it isn’t possible to track TikTok while it tracks you, as some of the app’s activity is encrypted.

Does TikTok Only Collect Data About Your In-App Activities?

Whether you have a TikTok account or not, TikTok may still be collecting data about you and your online travels.

Consumer Reports (CR) investigated and found that TikTok partners with a growing number of companies to gather data about internet users as they traverse the web. These companies embed tiny TikTok tracking “pixels” in their websites that allow them to target advertisements at potential customers.

CR hired a security firm to scan approximately 20,000 websites to see if TikTok’s pixels were present on those sites. In the list were the 1,000 most popular websites overall.

There were hundreds of websites sharing data with TikTok. Included among those sites were the Weight Watchers site, the United Methodist Church’s site, and Planned Parenthood. Even the Arizona Department of Economic Security told TikTok when you visited.

The number of TikTok trackers found was just a fraction of the number of trackers found for Google and Meta (Facebook’s parent). However, TikTok’s advertising business is growing quickly, meaning the number of websites that include a TikTok pixel will continue to grow rapidly.

Oh, and by the way, the national Girl Scouts website has a TikTok pixel included on every page, so it transmits information about any children that visit the website.

Where Does the Data That TikTok Collects Go?

Many fears about TikTok’s data collection involve whether the data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government.

TikTok-hired consultants concluded that there was “no indication” that the Chinese government had accessed TikTok users’ data. However, the consultant only analyzed the period of July through October 2019.

In a public statement, TikTok said:

“We store all TikTok U.S. user data in the United States, with backup redundancy in Singapore. Our data centers are located entirely outside of China, and none of our data is subject to Chinese law.”

However, a TikTok spokesperson also told privacy advocate David Carroll the following:

“Data from TikTok users who joined the service before February 2019 may have been processed in China. ByteDance has since reorganized its structure and operations to prevent user data from flowing into China.”

The spokesperson also told Carroll that:

“TikTok user data is stored and processed in the U.S. and other markets where TikTok operates at industry-leading third-party data centers. It’s important to clarify that TikTok does not operate in China and that the government of the PRC has no access to TikTok users’ data.”

Why Would TikTok Spy on Its Users?

While we have no way to prove that TikTok is spying on its users, sending the information back to China, we can look at a few things we do know, which might help us understand why TikTok might do a bit of spying.

First of all, TikTok’s parent company is located in China, where the government currently has a rather strained relationship with several Western countries. China holds tight control over many of the businesses that are located in the country, with laws granting authorities access to quite a bit of a company’s collected data.

TikTok collects huge amounts of data about its massive user base. The TikTok app could be quietly modified to collect more information, which could be used against individuals or other countries.

However, to be fair, there is no solid evidence that the Chinese government has used TikTok to spy. Many of the security weaknesses that have been discovered in the TikTok app have also been found in other social networking apps.

Cybersecurity researchers, the media, politicians, and intelligence personnel are all keeping a close eye on TikTok and similar apps, making it much more difficult to use the apps for spying.

How Else Would the Chinese Government Collect Data?

There are several ways for the Chinese government to spy on users in other countries.

They could do it the old-fashioned way by gleaning data from data breaches. The U.S. government claims that members of China’s PLA were behind the Equifax data breach a few years back (which exposed the data of more than 140 million Americans).

Or, they could simply buy information on the black market or purchase it from legitimate data brokers. The lack of regulation when it comes to data brokers means the Chinese could simply buy the data they’re looking for.

Should You Use TikTok?

If you’re a private person, you should not use TikTok (or Facebook, Google, Amazon, or the social network formerly known as Twitter, for that matter).

Let’s face it though, many folks use these apps and websites to keep in touch with family, friends, and coworkers. Sure, they are definitely less than private, but they have become a large part of our lives.

So, while I would recommend playing it safe and using TikTok as little as possible, a little common sense goes a long way. Don’t post anything that may come back and bite you. The less you share on social media, the less chance there is that someone can use what you share against you later down the line.

Should TikTok Use Be Restricted in Certain Situations?

While a country-wide restriction on TikTok could be considered something close to a violation of free speech, it does make sense to restrict the use of TikTok and similar apps in certain situations.

Companies that may be developing new products, use proprietary processes that can’t be exposed, or may have other proprietary information they want to keep undercover, have valid reasons for banning TikTok from employees’ devices.

Government employees, contractors, soldiers, and other folks who work on government or military projects should be required to use only secure communication tools on their government-issued devices, and TikTok certainly does not fit that description. In many cases, there may be reasons to restrict the use of TikTok and similar apps in their personal lives.

Even in situations where the decision on banning TikTok could go either way, users should err on the side of caution. Apps like TikTok have an almost insatiable hunger for new content, and the negative risks outweigh the positives.

Could the Government Fully Ban TikTok?

I personally cannot think of an app that has been banned by the U.S. government. However, if the government did attempt to ban the app it would require the full cooperation of Apple and Google to remove the app from their App Stores.

While a large number of apps have been removed or banned from both Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, these removals were at the discretion of Apple and Google, not at the direction of the U.S. government.

Tech firms will likely be reluctant to go along with any such app ban, as it could set a precedent, encouraging the government to ban other apps down the line.

Even if both app stores banned the TikTok app from their app stores, existing users will still have the app on their devices. Also, both device platforms allow the sideloading of apps (although it’s a bit easier on the Android platform). Sideloading is when you install an app on an iPhone or Android smartphone without going through the platform’s app store.

While the government could order all Internet Service Providers in the U.S. to block access to the app’s servers, there are ways around such virtual roadblocks.

What Should Happen Next?

While TikTok is the focus of concerns over data collection by social apps, there are plenty of other apps that collect just as much, if not more, data than TikTok.

We need to see wide-ranging data privacy reform. The government is currently playing catchup with the tech industry, as technology continues to change at a rapid pace.

User privacy needs to be put back into the hands of the users. Legislation should be passed that allows users to granularly control their own privacy, with specific explanations as to how each setting affects the user’s privacy, how data is collected, where it goes, how it’s used, and how long data is retained.

Instead of focusing on a single app, let’s take a close, yet wide-ranging look at the app industry and personal data collection.