As concern spread among users after TikTok, which completed the sale of its U.S. institutional sector, notified a privacy policy that includes collecting "immigration information," experts said the language is standard legal wording.
According to the tech outlet TechCrunch on the 24th, TikTok, which recently completed the establishment of a U.S. joint venture, sought users' consent to a new privacy policy. The revised policy specifies sensitive information that TikTok may collect from users, such as sex life and sexual orientation, whether a person is transgender, and citizenship or immigration information.
On social media (SNS), as this information spread, some raised concerns about whether they should withdraw from TikTok and delete the app. Some users also argued, based on this, that using TikTok amounts to providing databases to immigration enforcement agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
However, experts explained this is standard wording under California's privacy rights law and the consumer privacy protection law. Jennifer Daniels, a partner at the law firm Blank Rome, said, "Under these laws, TikTok must inform users through its privacy policy that sensitive personal information is being collected, as well as the purposes of use and the parties with whom it is shared."
In fact, TikTok's August 2024 edition of the privacy policy also includes content stating that it collects the sensitive information now at issue. It appears to list all sensitive information that may naturally be included as users share their own recordings or daily lives on TikTok.
The U.S. government raised national security concerns about ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese corporation, operating TikTok because it judged that if videos shared by American users include personal information, they could be subject to Chinese surveillance.
However, TechCrunch, citing controversy over immigration enforcement under the Donald Trump administration, reported that "for now, Americans are more concerned about potential surveillance by their own government than by China."