Blog 5

TikTok

All social media applications are required to have terms and conditions policies available to view on their website. Like most users, I never read them and quickly scroll to the bottom and click agree. They make the policies super long, repetitive, and boring on purpose so we don’t read them. As I have gotten older, I realize that I give up my privacy and information to use these social media sites for free. To me, that seems like a fair trade, however, there are hidden conditions within these user policies.   

I only heard of TikTok a few months ago and honestly only made one because my friends told me to. It immediately became by favorite social media app and even though I do not post on it often, I spend hours throughout the day watching videos, sending videos to my friends, and trying to learn the newest dances. I chose to explore TikTok’s privacy policy since it is a newer application that has quickly gained a major fanbase, myself included. 

When you go to their website and click on the side menu, you will scroll down to find the legal section. This information is easy to find and accessible as you can see from the image. 

Also as you can see, TikTok has two separate policies, one for those 13 and up and another for younger users. I started skimming the regular privacy policy to begin. Just like most other social media sites they collect users basic information like age, username, password, email and phone number.   

As I scrolled through the information, TikTok did a great job with the organization and headers to make the information clear and easy to understand. Their main sections include: 

·      What information do we collect

·      How we use your information 

·      How we share your information 

·      Your Rights

·      Your Choices 

·      Security

·      Children

·      Other Rights 

What surprised me was under the What Information We Collect category, in a subhead called "information automatically collected." TikTok has access to your IP address, geolocation data, device identifiers, and browsing and search history. Even though that seems like a lot of personal information, they use this to:

·      Customize content you see

·      Send promotional materials 

·      Provide customized ad experience and understand the effectiveness of the ads 

·      Communicate with you 

·      Enforce their terms and conditions 

Something that stood out to me was under the “children” section, they stated “this platform is not directed at children under the age of 13,” however, they allow children under that age to use it. Within the second privacy policy for those under 13, TikTok collects less personal information when they register and they cannot publicly share videos. This policy was much shorter, but still covered what information they collect, how they use and share it, security of the information, choices, and changes. They are committed to not selling younger users information to third parties, however, it is still distributed to their corporate group and service providers.  

After lightly reading over their terms and conditions, I feel like they need more regulations. Since this app is new I feel like it could easily get out of hand, especially since the content is for a mature audience. I think they should make it a rule that no one under the age of 13 can use the app because a lot of the songs and dances are more mature. It is uncomfortable to see these young kids cursing with the music and throwing it back so putting more restrictions on these kids is important. If my parents saw me watching or participating in these videos when I was only 13, I would have been grounded. Below is an example of a dancer I recognize from Dance Moms, Pressley Hosbach, who is 13 years old.