TikTok Privacy Policy update to collect the biometric data of the user
lce on the grounds of privacy violation, the Government of India banned TikTok and 58 other apps last year. While other apps weren’t that big a concern but for a booming app like TikTok, it did take a big chunk of users out. Why’re we talking about this? TikTok – the popular short-video platform, has been alleged of data theft, time and again. TikTok even had a lawsuit filed against it for ‘Theft’ of personal data, to settle which, TikTok had to shell out $92 Million to settle the class-action suit. This time around, the matter is of grave concern, as TikTok has gone stealth mode to collect user’s data.
The new update that went live on 2nd June has yet again raised some eyebrows, as it suggests that TikTok might collect your biometrics- faceprints, and voiceprints. Not just that, TikTok also has the access to analyze your contents and even your messages to “display personalized ads”.
The policy says, “We may collect information about the images and audio that are a part of your User Content, such as identifying the objects and scenery that appear, the existence and location within an image of the face and body features and attributes, the nature of the audio, and the text of the words spoken in your User Content. We may collect this information to enable special video effects, for content moderation, for demographic classification, for content and ad recommendations, and other non-personally-identifying operations.”
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With all that personal information and even biometrics at hand now, TikTok might have more data than you might actually want to put out. Even though the new policy says TikTok will be prompt users for their approval before collecting that data, the catch is- it will only do so, if the law of the land mandates it. Wherein this update will not be bothersome in the US as its states- Illinois, California, New York, Texas, and Washington have privacy laws in place that eliminates the worries tenfold.
The update spares European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and other geographies in terms of its operation. Regardless of the regions, this update is going to lay an impact upon, there’s no denying that TikTok has been plagued by controversies. This time around, the new update lets users know of the updated Privacy Policy via an in-app notification. Some users also reported that this new updated privacy policy prompted every time they opened the app, even if they had already accepted the privacy policy beforehand. While this might have been a minor bug in the prompt code, some speculate that this might be to make you clear about the new privacy policy that you just accepted.
This infuriated many users and they took it upon them to post about it on Twitter and even TikTok. Meanwhile, some of the users were unable to read the Privacy Policy in the first place, to begin with. Multiple tweets were made with screenshots to back up the statement.
This isn’t to create panic amongst users tough, but rather we want you to be aware of what you’re signing for. For more aware content like this, stay tuned to TechnoSanta.
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