TikTok Updated Privacy Policy, Biometrics, and Harmful Targeted Advertising
Last week, TikTok updated its privacy policy. There’s a lot to dig through in the update, but the big change is their declaration that they may collect your biometric data. They do not say what biometric data and offered no way to opt out of it. That is essentially a declaration that they will change how the platform is run based on that information.
So what is biometric data? It depends on context. Biometric data, as a whole, is an analysis of body characteristics. This can include everything from your fingerprints and DNA to how you walk and your body odor. More likely, TikTok is referring to soft biometrics, which are things like height, hair color, gender, or behavior that can be observed without more invasive testing. Wikipedia has a great overview with tons of sources if you’d like to read more.
Here’s the exact section of the privacy policy updated on 2 June.
Image and Audio Information
We may collect information about the images and audio that are a part of your User Content, such as identifying the objects and scenery that appear, the existence and location within an image of face and body features and attributes, the nature of the audio, and the text of the words spoken in your User Content. We may collect this information to enable special video effects, for content moderation, for demographic classification, for content and ad recommendations, and for other non-personally-identifying operations. We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content. Where required by law, we will seek any required permissions from you prior to any such collection.
We already know that TikTok uses location, perceived age, and interests (based on your watch time and interaction) to put content in front of you. If I, a professional teacher, interact with teacher videos, I’m going to wind up on TeacherTok and have videos about school put in front of me. Then it can get more specific. I recently interacted with enough music teacher content that I’m only getting videos from music teacher accounts at the expense of the theatre teacher or English teacher accounts I used to see.
TikTok already doesn’t like you to be in multiple bubbles. I’m not just a teacher. I’m a writer, an artist, a disabled person, a film fan, a crafter, a sewer, a reader, a gamer, etc. TikTok struggles to balance multiple interests. It’s all or nothing. I can spend weeks just seeing content from media critics, then an app update will shift me back over to classical music TikTok or BookTok.
This particular app using biometric data feels like a disaster waiting to happen. Remember the huge controversy that blew up when TikTok revealed that they intentionally suppress content from potentially bullied groups, like POC, LGBTQIAP+ creators, fat creators, and disabled creators? The FYP, even customized, heavily skews white, straight, fit, and able-bodied in America even after they said they weren’t going to do that anymore.
So under my TeacherTok example, I’m still largely seeing white, straight passing, in shape, and able-bodied teachers on my FYP. Occasionally, I’ll find a teacher talking about how they handle depression in the classroom or a teacher defending why they have Pride flags in their classroom, but it’s mostly teachers doing the same TikTok trends as their students with an educational twist. I have to actively seek out more diverse content and any progress made towards seeing a FYP that better reflects the diversity of the world is erased with every app update.
Do you really think that TikTok isn’t going to start sending me, a fat white person with purple hair and glasses, videos featuring other fat white people with colored hair and glasses? It’s already begun. It’s already been happening. Do you know how many teachers get away with having purple hair and colorful glasses in the classroom? Enough to be a little bubble on TikTok. Now TikTok just admits that they may officially track that data as part of their app.
I’m more concerned with how that data is going to be used in their ever-increasing ad presence on the app.
As of the last update to the TikTok app itself, I’m receiving an ad every four or five videos on the FYP. The content of these ads is pretty targeted to what TikTok can physically perceive about me.
My most common ads are: a brand of t-shirts for men that claims to hide your beer belly; a brand of makeup for men designed to cover undereye circles; workout clothes on sale to kickstart your fitness journey; meal replacement services and/or healthy meal planning subscriptions. You have the option of reacting to the ad, saying you’re not interested because “I keep seeing this,” “I don’t like the brand/creator,” “it’s not relevant to me,” or “other.”
No matter how many times I try to tell TikTok to stop sending me—a fat disabled person with a history of severe eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder—targeted weight loss or shapewear ads, they keep sending me the exact same ones. Not even alternate ads from the same companies, the exact same ads I said are “not relevant to me.” I’m also going to say it’s suspicious that I’ve had a manageable enough pain level to start working out again, using my phone to track steps and check in on if I remember to eat or drink throughout the day, and TikTok suddenly is sending me all this destructive diet culture content again. The only new wrinkle here is targeted ads, with TikTok misreading the room about my life, appearance, and health.
The FYP is actually hurting my mental wellness right now. TikTok knows from looking at me and my content that I’m fat, tired, and depressed. My conclusion is “therapy, medication, and fighting for a team of doctors that actually listen to my concerns;” their algorithmic conclusion based on my viewing habits and any data they collect is “fat guy needs to look better, get good.” Do you really think I want to spend an entire therapy session talking about how TikTok sent me spiraling? No.
When I say this is a new problem on TikTok, I mean this nonsense started with the updated privacy policy on 2 June and the newest app update on 4 June. Literally the only way to make one of these ads go away is to follow the brand, which I do not want to do. I tested it with an RPG notebook company I didn’t know were on the app and never saw one of their ads again. I also never saw their videos again even though they have a deep catalog of videos on their account. I guess I’m not being fed DnD TikTok content right now. I digress.
Like many people in the world, I joined TikTok near the start of the pandemic as an escape. I quickly found a community of like creators discussing horror films or theatre history or creating art and sharing techniques (among other beautifully curated niches—BassoonTok is God tier). I started making my own videos because reviewing a film or discussing critical theory in 59 seconds was a nice challenge. It helped grow my social media presence and helped with Sketching Details, streaming, longer video content, and book releases in the past year. Writers I haven’t seen since Television Without Pity got bought out by Bravo (really NBC/Universal) were suddenly back in my life and I was having a great time.
Now, I find myself spending less and less time on the app. Being bombarded with ads telling me everything wrong with me based on my physical appearance with no other context is dangerous for me. Other people may have a different experience with these ads and the data collection, but mine is not good at all. I can only hope I’m dealing with confirmation bias and every male-presenting person on TikTok of a certain age is getting these specific ads and not just me. I’m not confident that’s true.
