Tiktok is a video-sharing app where users can share their short videos of singing, acting, or funny videos. Billions of people are using Tiktok these days, and the question that is very popular in today’s time is; Is Tiktok Safe To Use? In addition, many people have doubts about does Tiktok spy on you with camera.
We need to understand that every social media like Facebook and Instagram applications collects users’ data and uses it for marketing and business purposes. Similarly, TikTok also asks permission to access your camera and mic to make videos. Through this, TikTok spies on you to make your feed more interesting for you, but some research says that TikTok sells your data to other companies as well.
Is TikTok Spying On You?
TikTok can have your data like your location and details, just like Facebook stores its users’ photos. It doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but this data can be very important for the countries like China to cyberattacks on their rival countries.
There is a popular belief that “A smartphone has the potential to be a more useful weapon than a missile.” This quote is somehow true; your smartphone can be useful as a weapon. As TikTok is a Chinese app, it may utilize its user’s data to comply with the intelligence-gathering platform to know more about its rival countries like places, amount of people, and many more.
TikTok claims that they do not store data in China, but it is hard to validate. It’s up to the TikTok users whether they want to give away their data to China by hitting the “agree” option to have your phone and data access. The user should download the app and use it at their own risk.
Does TikTok Have Any Involvement In Any Spying Controversies?
Though TikTok is widely popular worldwide and billions of people are using this video-sharing app, you may not be aware that TikTok was fined $5.7 million for the illegal data collection of children who were only 13 years old younger in 2018. TikTok then changed its privacy policy for young users. They only collect usernames, passwords, and dates of birth. However, the parents of the children are still not convinced and question does Tiktok spy on you with camera.
Can TikTok Record Your Information Without Your Permission?
TikTok is a great platform for people to perform their talents like acting, singing, dancing, or comedy. If you have extraordinary talent, you can shine in no time. The main concern is your personal information. When you go through Tiktok’s privacy policies, there’s no guarantee that your information will be protected.
When you register to TikTok, you need to access your microphone and camera; once you give them access, you can do the video recording and share. You need to give a permit to record or work with any app, so if TikTok records without your consent, that’s a violation of privacy. However, TikTok does collect your information data like your location, IP address, search history, and message contents.
What Does TikTok Do With Your Information?
There’s no doubt that TikTok and other social networking sites or apps collect users’ information data. As per TikTok’s official webpage, they have a list of ways how they will use your information which are:
Create Statistics And Data Analysis Of Your Surrounding
TikTok can observe your interactions in the real world and can create statistics about your life. Furthermore, TikTok can use your data to analyze your data along with the world’s data.
Customize Your Feed
TikTok wants you to feel the best experience online and does its best to make you spend as much time as possible. Having your collected data, TikTok makes your feed in such a way that will force you to keep scrolling. This is not a new thing, though, as all the other social media platform does similar things.
Send Your Data To Third Parties
TikTok integrates your data with third parties to have a wider selection of creative tools to promote their services.
Update Their Algorithms About Your Interests
TikTok collects your data and updates its algorithms according to your interests. Data is very important for algorithms to set programs based on users’ interests.
Detect Users’ Illegal Activity
TikTok and other social networking apps monitor users’ data to detect if any illegal activities are going on. TikTok will easily find out if there are any explicit activities done by the users and control such activity based on the user’s data.
How To Protect Your Personal Information Being Spied On TikTok?
Any social media networking apps are dangerous for kids to use as they might have no idea what can happen if their information reaches the wrong hands. Parents need to monitor the children’s activity and enable child safety settings.
In the case of TikTok, this app has kids mode for children aged thirteen or below. Adults are equally responsible for their privacy abuse issues if they do not use the TikTok app properly. There are several ways to keep personal information safe:
Enable Two-Factor Authentication
When the user enable two-factor authentication (2FA), it prevents opportunist from gaining access to your account. In addition, it ensures your identity is verified by TikTok twice.
Change TikTok’s Privacy And Safety Settings
It would be best to acknowledge that even though you have TikTok private account, all other TikTok users can see your profile information. You can approve only friends and approved subscribers to access your videos by changing your profile settings.
Go to the privacy and safety menu; there, you will have the option to manage who can view, like, comment, and download your videos, along with the block people option. You can also check devices connected to your tiktok account.
Manage Permissions
You can manage permission if you feel something unnecessary by removing it. For example, you do not need to remove the permission to use the mic and camera all the time, but make sure you turn them off every time you close the app. Doing so can help you stop Tiktok from spying on you via your phone’s microphone and camera.
Browsing TikTok In Incognito Mode (Windows/Android) And Private Window (IOS Devices)
When using Tiktok on a desktop, laptop, or Mac, you probably use a browser to use TikTok. Therefore, the safest way to use TikTok on your Windows computer/laptop or Mac is to open TikTok on “Incognito mode” and “Private Window,” respectively. This will prevent TikTok from taking your browsing data and your device’s data.
Enable Family Pairing
If your kid is using TikTok, you can enable family pairing. Enabling family pairing allows you to monitor your kid’s accounts and activities which ultimately help you to keep their account safe.
Using A Safe VPN
Using a VPN allows apps like TikTok to trace your information and spy on you. This is because VPN continuously changes your IP address which does not let TikTok spy on you. You can install VPN simply from your Play Store or App Store if you are using an Android device or an IOS device.
Also Read: How To Protect Your Tiktok Account
Frequently Asked Questions
As privacy is a matter of concern for everyone, many people can get a lot of questions in their heads and search for the answer. Some of the FAQs on does Tiktok spy on you with camera:
Is TikTok Application Used For Spying?
TikTok collects the user data in the same way that Facebook and other social media application do. But we cannot say, TikTok spies. It’s up to the user; they can use it if they have nothing to fear and lose.
Can TikTok See Through My Camera?
TikTok can access your camera when you allow them to do so; that’s the same with all other social media applications, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Can You Consider TikTok Social Media Safe App?
Most TikTok users worldwide are not likely to have sensitive content on their phones, so it’s relatively safe to use. However, people working in national securities may not feel safe using TikTok.
Conclusion
Despite TikTok having faced criticism as a Spy app based on Chinese origins, billions of people use this fast video streaming and sharing app. As a result, Tiktok continues to grow today and people wonder does Tiktok spy on you with camera. However, knowing that the TikTok app was once fined millions of dollars for collecting children’s data, this app has trust issues regarding privacy.
However, TikTok has improvised its features as it grows when people started to questions does Tiktok spy on you with camera. TikTok now has a kids-only mode, and by default, under 16 profiles are private, which is quite impressive. Social networking apps and sites like TikTok and Facebook collect users’ data to improvise their business growth, whereas spying is another issue. TikTok users need to be aware of the consequences and play safe.
Also Read: How To Stop Tiktok From Suggesting Your Account To Others
