The popular short video-sharing app TikTok has revised its privacy policy in the US. Changes in the privacy policy allow it to collect users’ biometric information such as faceprints and voiceprints from the content users post.
The privacy policy was updated on June 2 and was first spotted by TechCrunch. This update affects only users living in the US. Users from European Economic Area (EEA), the U.K., Switzerland, and other geographies are exempted from the changes. TikTok was banned in India last year. So, Indian users need not worry.
“We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under U.S. 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,” the ByteDance-owned company said in a newly introduced privacy policy.
It is worth noting that TikTok agreed to pay $92 million for settling a lawsuit after the company was accused of capturing biometric and private data from users. So, now the company wants to openly collect the same data. The company also faced $1.1 million lawsuits in 2019 over privacy violations against children.
TikTok isn’t the first platform that will collect this data. Other social media platforms also use object recognition on images and videos for ad targeting. Some collect face data for AR filters. But all other companies clearly admit about this. TikTok has changed the privacy policy to avoid future lawsuits.
