TikTok has made changes to its terms and conditions, and privacy policies for U.S. users, which include expanding its ability to target advertising and track the location of people who give the app permission to do so.
The revised privacy policy includes a statement that the new U.S. TikTok will share some data with TikTok’s global operations to ensure that users have an “interoperable experience.” The ByteDance-owned social media app said it was sharing that data “consistent with applicable law.”
American users started seeing a pop-up message asking them to agree with the new terms.
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This comes shortly after the deal was finalized for the takeover of TikTok’s U.S. operations by TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a joint venture led by three managing investors–cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake (SILAK.UL) and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX. This deal was forged to comply with a law — which went into effect in January this year — bans TikTok unless ByteDance divests approximately 80% of its U.S. assets to non-Chinese investors.
TikTok made changes to its privacy policy, and terms on targeted advertising and generative artificial intelligence. The new version of the privacy policy says that if users enable location services, TikTok can now collect approximate or precise location information. Meanwhile, at least one previous version of the app did not collect precise location information.
TikTok also changed its terms regarding its targeted advertising terms. While the previous terms and conditions said TikTok would use the data it collected to provide users with “tailored advertising” and other personal features like custom search results, the language in the updated version is more sweeping. The new terms state TikTok would use the data it collected from users and third parties to show “customized ads and other sponsored content” both on TikTok and on other websites. It also said that users can adjust their advertising permissions in the app.
While TikTok’s previous terms and conditions did not say anything about generative AI, the updated terms outline some new rules around making and posting AI content. Some of them forbid people to imply that any AI-generated content is real, including by removing watermarks or metadata that may help identify it as fake.
The updates to the privacy policy caused some concern after some users noted the language found in the policy, which says that TikTok could collect sensitive information about its users, including their “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status.”
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TechCrunch notes that this disclosure isn’t new. The same language appeared in TikTok’s privacy policy before the ownership deal closed and it’s primarily there to comply with state privacy laws like California’s Consumer Privacy Act, which requires companies to agree to disclose to consumers what “sensitive information” is collected. Similar disclosures appear in other social media apps’ policies. All the same, people have found the update concerning because of the current political climate.