Is Tik Tok A Threat To Online Privacy And Security?
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Prominent Americans have voiced reservations about the social media platform TikTok. Former President Trump tried to ban it. President Biden expressed concern when he was a candidate. Several major companies directed employees not to use it.
TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, has around a billion users worldwide, and they create and share short-form videos on the app. Many users and children and teens. Are the privacy and security concerns around TikTok justified?
TikTok collects username, age, gender, email address, type of mobile device, and information about your messages and online activities. This information is shared with advertisers, marketers, and vendors who collect, analyze and resell demographic information. To fully use the app, users agree to access their location, camera, and contact list.
You can make some of this information private, but there’s still a chance it could become public through a data breach. What is a data breach? It’s an event that exposes confidential data. It can happen through a hack, a compromised password, or other accidental or deliberate means. Information you thought was private could become known and even available for sale.
There are social media privacy laws, but they’re limited in their ability to protect you. They mostly concern financial and medical records, and they don’t do much to thwart bad guys. Social media has moved forward too fast for them to keep up.
Why the Concerns about TikTok?
When it comes to collecting and reselling user data, TikTok doesn’t do anything that Facebook, Instagram, and others don’t do. Why then the concern?
The main reason seems to be that TikTok’s parent is based in China. Some politicians think China could use TikTok to spy on the US. Another is that TikTok, more than other social media apps, appeals to a teen audience. There’s concern that these users will be less sophisticated about protecting themselves.
Mitigating TikTok Privacy Concerns
There are a few practices you can adopt to reduce your privacy exposure.
- Don’t give out your surname or your age.
- Don’t show landmarks such as street signs and schools in your posts.
- Set your account to “private” in the settings menu to follow you only those you approve.
Is TikTok a Privacy Threat? Yes, but…
Sure, there are risks any time you provide personal information. However, there’s no reason to be more concerned about TikTok privacy and security than about Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media app. Enjoy them, but be cautious.