TikTok and Data Privacy

By: Isidro Manuel Sontousidad

TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the world. It's been downloaded over a billion times in the two
years that it's been around. And it has produced countless memes. TikTok has a bit of a complicated
history. It's owned by a parent company called Byte Dance, which is from China. Byte Dance is one of the
most valuable startups in the world. It's thought to be worth about $75 billion, which is massive. Despite
of the success, government have criticized TikTok for censorship, privacy, and child safety.

The social media app certainly bears a tumultuous history, but this newest issue brings forth more layers
of ethical issues. TikTok has had major privacy concerns flare-up in the past and is reportedly under
investigation by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission for potentially failing to
adequately delete videos from users who are 13 and under, as required by law. In TikTok's relatively
short existence, the app has come under fire for various security weaknesses. Lawmakers and regulators
who are wary of Chinese technologies have targeted the app's vulnerabilities and branches of the U.S.
military have prohibited the use of the app on government-issued devices. It is said that tis app “puts
your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party”. There's still some criticism that
TikTok, being owned by a Chinese company, might succumb to some pressure by the Chinese
government either to hand over data on its users to the Chinese government or to kind of censor topics
that, you know, would be fine in the West and in Europe but not sort of OK inside China. It is a very scary
situation for children my age.

Despite its rapid growth, TikTok hasn't developed a strong source of revenue. TikTok has a lot of
venture-capital backing, but it will have to generate a profit eventually, which could mean ads or
paywalled features. But if TikTok wants to continue growing at its current rate, it's going to have to find
a way to gain the public's trust outside of China.