Like many news outlets, we’ve recognised that TikTok — while it can be entertaining — has some pretty significant security risks. These calls for TikTok to be banned date back to 2020 and, given recent US decisions, aren’t likely to stop.
The specific decision referenced is to ban the installation and use of TikTok on any government devices. This is just the first step, with other pathways already being explored to ban the platform outright in the USA.
Whether you’re a user of TikTok or not, the amount of data they collect on users is scary:
Technical Information we collect about you. We collect certain information about the device you use to access the Platform, such as your IP address, user agent, mobile carrier, time zone settings, identifiers for advertising purposes, model of your device, the device system, network type, device IDs, your screen resolution and operating system, app and file names and types, keystroke patterns or rhythms, battery state, audio settings and connected audio devices. Where you log-in from multiple devices, we will be able to use your profile information to identify your activity across devices. We may also associate you with information collected from devices other than those you use to log-in to the Platform.
It’s interesting to see the USA leading the way on issues pertaining to data security and TikTok. Whether or not other countries follow in the new year remains to be seen.
Discussion about this post