Earlier this week, TikTok, the Chinese social media platform, announced their new privacy policy. Accordingly, TikTok informed users that the app may collect new types of biometric data, such as “facial recognition and voice recognition,” but the company is said to be “unexplainable”. about what kind of data this term refers to, or why the application needs to access this information.
“On Wednesday TikTok introduced a change to their privacy policy in the US, that the social video app may collect biometric identification and biometric information from users’ content. ,” TechCrunch reported. “It includes things like facial recognition and voice recognition,” the policy explains.
According to TechCrunch, TikTok did not provide details on adding biometric data to the list of information it automatically collects from users for what, but said it will ask for consent in the future. where the activity of collecting such data begins.
“We may collect visual and audio information from user-generated content, such as identifying objects, and the context in which they appear, entities and places in images including features and facial and body attributes, the natural state of sound, and the verbal originality of the user-generated content,” TikTok announced in the “Image Info” section. photos and sounds” in their new privacy policy.
“We may collect this information to create special visual effects for content moderation, demographics, size and advertising recommendations, and other anonymous user activities. We may collect biometric identification and biometric information as specified by US law, such as facial recognition and voice recognition, from user-generated content. When required by law, we will endeavor to obtain the necessary consents from you before proceeding with any such collection,” the company added.
Other forms of “technical information” recorded by the Chinese social media platform include “keystroke patterns or rhythms” and “SIM and/or address-based location information” your IP.” The company also did not specify where such data is kept, saying it could be recorded from “outside your country,” and that Tiktok maintains “large servers around the world.” world to bring you our global and ongoing service.”
As TechCrunch notes, issues like user consent and storage methods become especially important because “only a few US states have biometric privacy laws, including Illinois, Washington, California, Texas and New York.”
“If TikTok only offers user consent when required by law, it means that users in other states may not be notified of data collection,” TechCrunch added.
In another development, the Biden administration on Wednesday (June 9, US time) ordered to revoke the executive orders of former President Donald Trump, which banned the social networking applications TikTok and WeChat. The executive order signed by President Biden on June 9 directs the US Department of Commerce to “assess threats through thorough, evidence-based analysis” and recommends that the agency “address all risks”. unacceptable or excessive in a manner consistent with national security, foreign policy, and economic goals, including upholding and embodying core U.S. values and fundamental freedoms “.
According to the White House, the Commerce Department will be required to review TikTok, WeChat, and other apps developed, designed, controlled, or manufactured by entities affiliated with the CCP. The executive order notes that such apps “may represent an undue or unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and to the American people.”
The Trump administration argues that these Chinese apps pose a national security risk to the US because of their links to the Chinese Communist Party.
