By TikTok can show you just about anything, but have you ever wondered how your For You page knows exactly what you want to see?
While algorithms and search history on the app have influence, some sources show that the app has gained access to your entire phone and can analyze shocking amounts of data.
The Company NortonLifeLock, which provides various kinds of security including for phones and laptops, analyzed TikTok privacy policies and found shocking results.
While many apps like TikTok collect data from your email addresses, contacts, and IP addresses, which can determine your geographic location, TikTok takes these features even further. One of which includes biometric data of your face which can be linked to other photos of you outside of the app.
In his article for NortonLifeLock, Steve Symanovich explained how this was found.
“Apple developers testing the operating system, iOS 14, recently found that the TikTok app could access clipboard data on its iPhones. iPhone users sometimes use the clipboard feature to copy sensitive information like passwords. That means TikTok could also access and potentially collect the data, ” said Symanovich.
Meaning that prior to the last update, TikTok could theoretically have access to anything on your device, including clipboard contents. For apple users, this means not only on your iPhone but on any apple device.
Clipboard contents could show anything including bank information, passwords, and basically anything you copied and pasted across apps.
These discoveries have caught the attention of the United States Government in the last several weeks. TikTok, owned by ByteDance Inc. is a Beijing-based social media company, adds international intrigue to the story.
Under a Chinese National Security Law, the government can force any company to share their data including intellectual property and proprietary information of users in the United States, said Romboy in an article by Deseret News.
With this new information, the US Government has looked into options to ban the app. As of now, at least 14 states have restricted the app on government devices, and some state-run universities including Montana State University in Bozeman, have already blocked the app on their campus Wi-Fi.
NPR’s Manuela Restrepo published a story on why the TikTok ban is more about politics than privacy.
“Last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio, announced legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States. Rubio, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, claimed that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Byte Dance, cannot be trusted with access to United States’ user data because of the potential national security risk,” said Restrepo.
Discrete News explained that Rubio’s proposed new bill would prohibit TikTok from operating in the United States, and stop all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries.
While ByteDance is negotiating agreements to keep the app in the US, the company has also admitted to having “employees improperly accessing data from US citizens’ TikTok data as part of an investigation into leaks to journalists.” Sarah Morrison, a reporter from Vox, said this evidence is not helping ByteDance’s cause.
Now that blocking access on certain Wi-Fi’s is possible, Carroll might consider the option. If that were to happen, all of the Carroll-affiliated accounts would go with it, including sports teams, admissions, and student activities.
Students would not be able to access the app while on campus unless it was using their own cellular data. While this might make some students upset at the school for taking away their ability to use the app, I think this could be a good idea.
Although there is no definitive answer yet as to whether or not there will be a complete ban of the app, students should use caution when using TikTok on their devices, as well as pay closer attention to the privacy settings on all social media apps.
As for me, I have already deleted my account and removed the app from my phone completely. A safer way to see the same videos is on Instagram Reels. So until there is no concern for privacy, I plan to stick to that for my time-wasting activities.
