TikTok is a social network application dedicated to creating and sharing minute-long video content. Since its launch, TikTok has been able to garner 1.5 billion downloads and currently has 800 million active users. It’s the 9th most used social network (ahead of Twitter and Facebook), and was able to gain the amount of users Instagram has in half the time. Celebrities like Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, and Lizzo have also attracted a substantial amount of users to the application. With the popularity of TikTok increasing exponentially, governments around the world have taken notice of how the app manages its data, especially because of the current accusations stating that the app shares private information with the Chinese government.
TikTok Origins
TikTok originated in China under the name Douyin in September of 2016. The following year, a company named ByteDance launched the app outside of China but operated in different networks to comply with Chinese censorship restrictions. ByteDance purchased an already popular video-content application called “Musical.ly” which also allowed for an easy integration into the teen US market. Calls for transparency were made once users became aware of the type of information that TikTok can access.
Reddit Reverse Engineering
A reddit post has been gaining traction after a software engineer had reverse engineered the application to see what type of information TikTok was able to access. In his post, he states that the app is able to access information regarding phone hardware, other applications downloaded on users’ phones, and anything network related (IP addresses, wifi router names). Digital privacy has always been a rising concern since the beginning of the digital era and TikTok has more access to user information than any of its competitors including Instagram and Snapchat. While ByteDance has denied sharing data with the Chinese government, users have been starting to delete their accounts.
Anonymous Influence
Hacktivist group “Anonymous” has been actively encouraging followers to delete that TikTok with claims that that the app is “malware operated by the chinese government running a massive spying operation”. While these claims may be alleged, it has gotten many countries starting to take legal action. Places like India, who are TikTok’s biggest foreign market with nearly 120 million active users, have already banned TikTok as a precaution. US Secretary of State applauded India’s government for taking action in protecting the nation’s security.
You Decide
Privacy issues have always been a concern with any social media site users sign up for. Making an account with any of these apps forces you to check a ‘Terms and Conditions’ box that many times users won’t even read, giving these apps access to information that you might not be aware of. Whether you decide to take your digital privacy more seriously or not is up to you. It begs the question of whether the enjoyment of these 1-minute videos is worth the risk that your data is being shared.
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