In 2016, TikTok exploded onto the app market as the latest fad in social media. Users could post short-form videos ranging from fifteen seconds to several minutes, and as of today, the app boasts more than 1 billion active users. TikTok has been downloaded more than 2.6 billion times, trailing only Facebook, YouTube and Instagram in overall users.
But TikTok’s Terms of Service Agreement has become a hotly debated topic. Many around the world have deemed it to be “spyware,” while others — including national politicians — have called for it to be banned. Via his Twitter account on June 28, 2022, Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) called TikTok “Chinese spyware” and called for it to be removed from all mobile app stores.
“TikTok is not just another video app. That’s the sheep’s clothing. It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing. I‘ve called on @Apple & @Google to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices.” – @BrendanCarrFCC
The app was developed by ByteDance, which is partly owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and opponents argue that it exposes users to a wide range of potential privacy violations. Matt Stamper, chief information security officer for Evotek and author of Data Privacy Program Guide, claimed in an interview with CBS, “[Tik Tok] is, from my perspective, a clear and present danger in terms of the amount of data that is collected. It has elements within its terms of service that allow TikTok to share the information collected with anybody and everybody that they choose to up to and including potentially agencies within the Chinese government.”
Apple researchers have openly commented that TikTok deliberately spies on users. In 2019, the United States government banned all active service members from downloading TikTok to their personal devices.
With so many tech experts, including those within the United States government, all raising concerns, it begs the question: What exactly do users agree to when downloading TikTok?
Browser Trackers and Data Collection
Research from a German data protection website, Rufposten, has revealed that TikTok installs browser trackers on your device. These trackers monitor all of your activities on the internet.
According to ByteDance, these trackers were put in place to recognize and prevent “malicious browser behavior.” However, they also enable TikTok to use fingerprinting techniques, which give users a unique ID. This enables TikTok to link data to user profiles in a very targeted way.
Spyware Revealed
Other types of information collected by TikTok include:
• Your smartphone’s hardware (CPU type, hardware IDs, screen size, dpi, memory usage, storage space, etc.);
• Access to all other apps installed on your device;
• Access to all your contacts;
• Network information (IP, local IP, your router’s MAC address, your device’s MAC address, the name of your Wi-Fi network);
• Access to all folders and files on your phone;
• Whether your device was rooted/jailbroken;
• Location data.
Additionally, the app creates a local proxy server on your device, which is officially used for “transcoding media.”
Data Exchange With CCP and Other Companies
TikTok’s privacy policy grants ByteDance authority to release all collected user data to both commercial parties and governments. “We will share your information with law enforcement agencies, public authorities or other organizations if legally required to do so, or if such use is reasonably necessary to comply with legal obligation, process or request.”
According to tech and legal experts, this single clause is what allows TikTok to provide its harvested data from its billions of users directly to the Chinese Communist Party or any other entity with which TikTok does business. There are no limitations to what they can do with your information.
The excerpts below from TikTok’s privacy policy show that they can easily share your data with a third party.
Tik Tok Mandated Privacy Settings
Once installed on your phone, users have a very limited set of privacy settings they can change. There are only two settings users can turn on or off: a setting described above regarding advertising preferences and a setting with which users can control their interaction with others.
TikTok’s privacy policy allows ByteDance to harvest all kinds of information about its users without giving them a chance to opt out. This information includes:
• “Any data” users provide to create an account.
• Information about your use of the app. This includes the videos you watch and which other users you interact with.
• Data from Facebook, Google, or Twitter (if you create an account via one of those platforms).
It remains unclear where the collected data is saved, how long it will be saved or what it is used for.
Access to Your Camera and Microphone
TikTok is an app that uses your camera and microphone to function. However, ByteDance does not specify how these permissions are used. Therefore, TikTok could theoretically record conversations and sounds using your microphone, even when you aren’t filming a TikTok video.
How To Remove TikTok
Aside from the privacy concerns highlighted above, users are exposed to many other outside threats, including online bullying, harassment, identity theft and child predators. Some who innocently downloaded the popular app may want to delete it. Here is a step-by-step guide to the process and the verifications you need to take.
Please note that prior to being deleted, the app will ask if you want to receive all the data associated with the account in the form of a TXT or JSON file. Some users have reported receiving a file from TikTok after a few days with folders containing the username, profile photo, bio, contact info, video history, comment history, chat history, like history, favorites history, privacy settings, notification preferences and language settings. Also, just because you have “deleted” your account does not mean that TikTok has not already harvested your information and provided it to third parties like the CCP.
Here’s how the deletion process works:
1. Go to My Profile (the person icon on the bottom right corner), and tap the triple bars located in the top right corner.
2. Tap Manage account > Delete account.
3. Click Delete Account.
4. Choose to download your data (or not).
5. Confirm the deletion with two-step verification.
Once you click delete, your account will be deactivated for 30 days. After that, you won’t be able to access your account, your videos and your drafts. Congratulations — you’ve completed all the steps to delete TikTok — and its potential spying and snooping capabilities — from your device.
