TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, with over 73 million monthly active users in the US alone. The app allows users to create and share short videos, often set to music. But like many free services, TikTok makes money by collecting user data.
TikTok gathers a huge amount of data about its users, including profile information, content created, online activity, device data, location data, contacts, and more. This data helps TikTok improve its service but is also used for targeted advertising. There are concerns about how securely this data is protected and whether China-based ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, also has access.
This article provides an overview of the various types of user data TikTok collects and what it’s used for.
User Profiles
TikTok collects a range of information to create user profiles when someone signs up for an account. According to an article on OCHOLAVENUE, “Tiktok gathers information such as your name, profile picture, username and date of birth” https://ocholavenue.com/what-user-data-does-tiktok-collect/. Your name, age, username, and profile photo are all collected and stored as part of your TikTok user profile. This allows TikTok to identify you and serve you personalized content based on your interests and demographics.
User Content
When users post videos, messages, comments, or any other type of content to TikTok, that content is stored by TikTok. This includes the actual videos users upload as well as any text, captions, comments, messages, or other information they add.
According to TikTok’s privacy policy, they may retain user content as long as the user’s account is active. This allows them to store, backup, and display the content users provide. Users can download their own videos to save copies according to TikTok’s help documentation (https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/exploring-videos/video-downloads). However, the user content stored by TikTok enables them to maintain and analyze that data for various purposes.
User Activity
TikTok tracks a wide range of user activity within the app to understand usage patterns and preferences. This includes the videos you like, share, or interact with in any way. TikTok records when you search for certain content, hashtags, or creators. It analyzes the amount of time you spend watching different types of videos. According to the TikTok privacy policy, this allows them to “understand what you might like to watch on TikTok based on your interactions with content on our platform.”
Likes are a core signal for TikTok’s recommendation algorithm. When you double tap a video to like it, TikTok registers that preference to refine your “For You” feed and steer you towards similar content. The videos you choose to share also provide insight into your interests. Even just allowing a video to auto-play through while scrolling past it tells TikTok something about the type of content you respond to.
Searches reveal your intentions and desires for what to watch. TikTok catalogs what users search for to identify trends and optimize search results. The amount of time you spend watching different genres of videos demonstrates your true preferences versus just liking or commenting on them.
As noted in this analysis, “TikTok uses all this activity data to find out what keeps you using the app, tailor the experience to your tastes, and maximize the time you spend in the app.”
Source: How TikTok Reads Your Mind: Making Sense of the Algorithms
Device Data Collection
TikTok collects a significant amount of data from users’ devices to support the functioning of the app and enable certain features. This includes your device’s unique identifier, the operating system it runs on, and various details about its network connection and capabilities.
Specifically, TikTok accesses your device’s IDFA on iOS or AAID on Android. These identifiers allow TikTok to distinguish your device from others, link multiple profiles or installations of the app to you, and provide personalized ads based on your usage across devices. The app also collects your device model, OS version, mobile carrier, preferred languages, screen resolution, remaining battery level, and total available storage space.
Regarding network data, TikTok records information like your IP address, WiFi network SSID and BSSID, and mobile network state. This allows the app to customize content delivery based on your connection speed and quality. TikTok also analyzes network traffic patterns to improve service and troubleshoot issues.
While device data collection enables key app functionality, the amount of data gathered provides significant insight into TikTok users and their habits. TikTok leverages this to optimize the user experience, but also to benefit commercially from increasingly detailed user profiles.
Location Data
TikTok collects your precise location if you enable location services on your device. This allows TikTok to provide location-specific content like trending music in your area. According to this source, when you first download TikTok and create an account, you’re asked to allow the app to access your location. If enabled, TikTok can pinpoint your coordinates using GPS, Wi-Fi networks, mobile networks, and other sensors.
TikTok states they collect this data to customize content like relevant ads and improve recommendations. However, privacy advocates warn that having access to users’ locations enables TikTok to build detailed profiles about people’s habits, interests, and movements. TikTok claims location data is only collected when the app is in use, but some experts caution that background location tracking may still occur even when TikTok is closed.
Contacts
TikTok requests permission to access users’ phone contacts when they create an account. If users grant access, TikTok can collect names and phone numbers from the user’s address book. This allows TikTok to build a social graph and connect users with people they may know on the platform. It also aids with targeted advertising by giving TikTok insight into a user’s relationships and networks.
However, many users are concerned about granting access to their contacts as it provides a significant amount of personal data to TikTok. Some users have reported TikTok accessing contacts even when permission was not expressly given. TikTok claims this is due to a software bug that has since been fixed.
According to TikTok’s privacy policy, they may share contact information with third parties for business purposes but claim they will not sell or rent contact information to third parties without consent. Users can revoke contact access in their app settings at any time.
Source: https://www.tiktok.com/@bio.bnb
Advertising
TikTok uses the data it collects to serve users tailored ads based on their activity on the platform. According to the TikTok privacy policy, data like your interests, viewing history, actions (such as liking a video), and location may be used to customize the ads you see.
For example, if you frequently watch cooking videos or like food-related content, you may start seeing more ads for cooking products or food delivery services. TikTok’s algorithm analyzes your preferences to select ads that are most relevant to you.
Users have some control over the ads they see through TikTok’s Ad Settings. You can opt out of receiving personalized ads based on your interests or disable personalized ads entirely. However, generic ads will still be served. TikTok states that they do not show users ads based on sensitive categories like race, health, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation.
Sources:
https://www.tiktok.com/privacy/ads-and-your-data/en
https://pirg.org/articles/demystifying-tiktok-data/
Improvements to App
TikTok uses the data it collects to improve the app’s features and overall performance1. By analyzing user behavior and preferences, TikTok can optimize the user experience. For example, the recommendation algorithm leverages watch history and interactions to surface new videos likely to engage each user. Machine learning models are trained on usage data to improve video recommendations, search results, and notifications2. User data also allows TikTok to test new features with certain demographics before rolling them out more widely. Overall, collecting and analyzing user data enables TikTok to refine its products and keep users happily engaged.
Data Security
There have been serious concerns over TikTok’s data privacy and security practices from governments, organizations and users around the world[1]. Critics argue that TikTok collects incredible amounts of personal data from users, far beyond what is reasonably needed to operate the app[2]. Much of this data is sent back to servers in China, raising fears that the Chinese government could access it[3].
Specifically, TikTok has access to users’ locations, browsing and search histories, messages, contacts, demographic data, and content of videos[2]. Experts warn this is an “unprecedented amount of data” for any app to harvest, giving TikTok significant profiling power[1]. There are worries China could exploit data on foreign TikTok users for intelligence purposes, such as identifying government employees or mapping their social connections[3].
TikTok claims it stores American user data in the US and Singapore, but code analysis has revealed encryption keys for decrypting TikTok data are sometimes stored in China[2]. While TikTok claims it would not hand data to China, experts argue the law obligates them to cooperate with state intelligence agencies[1]. Overall, many believe TikTok’s collection and storage of personal data poses a severe risk to user privacy and national security interests.
