The famous TikTok application, which is widely spread among young people and adolescents around the world, is still in the eye of the storm, with more countries heading to ban it.
Recently, many lawmakers and officials in America called for this short video application to be completely banned in the country, and not just to prevent government employees from downloading it.
Why so much anxiety?
So why all this panic about an application that collects private information about the user just as it is collected by the Meta company that owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as Google?
TikTok, like other messaging applications and communication sites, collects a lot about you!
Like other applications, of course, it can access users’ names, ages, phone numbers, email addresses, details about the devices and mobile networks they use, and even biometric information!
Note that he declares this publicly in his announcement about the privacy policy that he follows, but very few users pay attention to that.
In addition, its algorithm also tracks what users watch and how much time they spend on each video so that you can better customize the content you present to them, giving the app a clear view of users’ behavior patterns, likes and dislikes.
The biggest problem
However, the biggest problem with this application is the fear that all this information will end up in the bosom of the Chinese government, because of the ownership of the Chinese technology company, ByteDance.
In this context, many experts have made it clear that TikTok’s approach is no different from the rest of the companies in Silicon Valley, but its danger lies in the destination in which the data it collects can go.
Tik Tok (AFP)
On the other hand, said Bruce Schneier, a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University who specializes in privacy issues: “We are already used to technology companies having this huge amount of access to our personal lives,” adding that the United States government also has that ability, so why worry Only toward China and TikTok?”, according to Foreign Policy.
However, the danger is clear to many governments around the world, led by America. TikTok has acknowledged that its data, even if it is stored outside Chinese borders, can be accessed by employees in China.
Tik Tok (AFP)
Despite BatDance’s assurances and promises not to provide any information to the Chinese government, Chinese law ultimately compels it.
Also addictive
But it’s not just privacy that’s bothering the global app, it’s “addiction” as well.
He faced many criticisms due to the risk of “addiction” to young people, who come first to TikTok fans.
Perhaps this is what prompted him to announce his intention in the coming weeks to adopt a warning mechanism for users 60 minutes after the start of use for all those who stated that they are 18 years of age or older.
As they will then have to enter a password to continue browsing the site, according to what TikTok announced two days ago.
This password can be specified by one of the parents in the event that they depend on the parental control service on the accounts of their minor children.
However, underage users can still provide false information about their age or disable this feature, as is the case with other websites.
It is noteworthy that this new feature, which is added to warning mechanisms that already exist, aims to respond to many complaints about the significant increase in the time that minor users spend on the application, in light of the ease of this matter due to the format of short videos proposed by algorithms that analyze their tastes.
A recent global study conducted by Q-Studio in 2022 showed that minors spend an average of 1 hour and 47 minutes per day on Tik Tok, noting that many parents confirm that the rate is much higher.
