The popular application TikTok, widely popular among young people and teenagers around the world, is still in the eye of the storm, with more countries preparing to ban it.
Recently, many American lawmakers and officials have called for this short video application to be banned completely in the country and not just to prevent government employees from downloading it.
Why so much concern?
So why all this panic over an application that collects information private about the user as collected by the Meta company that owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as Google?
TikTok, like other messaging apps and communication sites, collects a lot about you!
Like other applications, of course, it can access users’ names, ages, phone numbers, email addresses, details about the devices and mobile networks they use, and even biometric information!
Note that it publicly states this in its privacy policy announcement below, but very few users pay attention to it.
Furthermore, its algorithm also tracks what users watch and how much time they spend on each video in so you can better personalize the content you present to them, giving the app a clear view of users’ behavior patterns, likes, and dislikes.
The biggest problem
However, the biggest problem with this application is the fear that all this information will run out in within the Chinese government, due to ownership of the Chinese technology company ByteDance.
In this context, many experts have clarified that TikTok’s approach is no different from the rest of Silicon Valley companies, but its danger lies in the destination in where the data it collects can go.
On the other hand, said Bruce Schneier, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, specialized in privacy issues: “We’re already used to tech companies having a huge amount of access to our personal lives,” adding that the U.S. Government also has this ability, so why bother just China and TikTok?” , according to Foreign Policy.
However, the danger is clear to many governments in around the world, led by America. TikTok has acknowledged that its data, even when stored outside China’s borders, is accessible to employees in China.
Despite BatDance’s assurances and promises not to give any information to the Chinese government, Chinese law eventually mandates it.
Engaging too
But it’s not just privacy that bugs the global app, it’s also “addiction”.
It has faced a lot of criticism due to the risk of “addiction” for young people, who come first and foremost from TikTok fans.
Perhaps that’s what prompted him to announce his intention in the coming weeks to roll out a 60-minute user alert mechanism for anyone who claims to be 18 years of age or older.
As they will then have to enter a password to continue browsing the site, according to what was announced by TikTok two days ago.
Such a password can be specified by one of the parents in case in which the latter depends on the parental control service on the accounts of their minor children.
However, minor users can still provide information false about their age or disable this feature, as happens with other sites web.
Interestingly, this new feature, which adds to the already existing warning mechanisms, aims to address many complaints about the significant increase in the time minor users spend on the application, in light of the ease of this matter due to the format of short videos proposed by algorithms that analyze their tastes.
A recent studio survey conducted by Q-Studio in 2022 showed that minors spend in media 1 hour and 47 minutes a day on Tik Tok, noting that many parents confirm that the rate is much higher.
