TikTok’s privacy policy has come under intense scrutiny in recent years. The app collects lots of user data, including:
- Personally identifiable information
- Keystroke patterns
- Location information based on your SIM card and/or IP address
- App activity
- Browser and search history
- Biometric information (face and voice print)
This is cause for concern, and it’s unclear what ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, does with this data. The best way to protect your privacy on TikTok is to use a VPN. A solid VPN, like NordVPN, hides sensitive data, like your location, and allows you to use TikTok anonymously.
Besides using a VPN, we also recommend optimizing your TikTok privacy settings. Continue reading the article below for step-by-step instructions on how to change your TikTok settings.
TikTok is a popular social media app that allows users to create and share short videos. In recent years, there have been privacy and security concerns around TikTok’s data collection. But why is TikTok bad?
TikTok collects a lot of information about users, and it’s unclear what happens to this data. Critics have alleged ties between TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and the Chinese government, claiming the app is used for espionage. However, ByteDance has denied these claims.
Whatever the case, it’s clear that TikTok’s invasive data collection puts your privacy at risk. We have found that using a VPN is the easiest way to protect your privacy on TikTok. A top-rated VPN like NordVPN allows you to use TikTok anonymously and prevents TikTok from accessing sensitive information like your IP address or tracking your online activity.
Why TikTok is Bad: TikTok Privacy Concerns
TikTok has hundreds of millions of active users across the world. The app has been accused of collecting users’ personal data on a large scale and selling it to advertisers.
Since teenagers make up a significant part of this user base, TikTok has been under fire for illegally collecting and processing data from younger users. In 2021, ByteDance settled more than twenty data collection lawsuits for $92 million. And, in August 2023, European Union data privacy regulators announced plans to fine TikTok £12.7m (about $16.2 million) for failing to comply with EU regulations regarding the data processing of children under 13.
Besides its invasive data collection, TikTok can also have harmful effects on your mental health.
What does TikTok know about you?
Even if you don’t have an account, TikTok may still track and gather data about you. When someone sends you a TikTok link, and you click to open it, TikTok collects anonymized data such as your device type, IP address, what content you viewed, and the last app you used before clicking the link.
Although this information is anonymous, a lot can be inferred from it. The next time you open a TikTok link, for example, the algorithm will serve you recommendations based on your viewing history.
The more content you consume, the easier for TikTok to determine your age range, gender, and interests — even without a TikTok account/profile.
Of course, as soon as you create a TikTok account, more data gets collected. TikTok collects way more data than it needs to from users. According to TikTok’s privacy policy, the app collects the following data from users:
- Email address
- Phone number
- Date of birth
- Profile information, including photos and videos
- Device information, including keystroke patterns
- Location information based on SIM card and/or IP address
- App activity
- Phone contact list
- Browser and search history
- Any text, images, and video on your device’s clipboard, if you copy and paste something into the app
- Biometric information (face and voice print)
- Information from other social media accounts
What happens to your data?
All technology companies collect user data. The risk with TikTok especially is that it remains unclear what exactly happens to your data, where it’s stored, how it’s used, and with who TikTok shares user data.
TikTok’s privacy policy says data collection is important for “improving the user experience.” To get better insight into your digital footprint, you may request your data directly from TikTok. This, however, won’t tell you where your data ends up or who has access to it.
TikTok claims that user data is only saved on servers in Singapore and the United States rather than on servers in China. However, this claim is not verifiable.
Does TikTok exchange data with other companies and governments?
One of the reasons experts are so concerned about TikTok is the possible data exchange with other countries and businesses. Upon closer inspection of TikTok’s privacy policy, the risk becomes apparent.
With regard to third-party access, TikTok states the following: “If you choose to allow a third-party service to access your account, we will share certain information about you with the third party.”
What’s more, its policy says, “Depending on the permissions you grant, the third party may be able to obtain your account information and other information you choose to provide.”
We asked investigative journalist and writer Maria Genova about her opinion on TikTok. Genova says, “There’s a reason several countries have banned it. It’s unbelievable how much information an app like that pulls from your phone.”
“If [TikTok] is downloaded massively [in a country], you can observe the entire population and draw conclusions from that,” she added.
Mental health
When discussing why TikTok is bad, it’s important to consider its harmful effects on mental health.
Experts in the fields of neuro-psychology warn that apps such as TikTok mess with the brain’s dopamine receptors and people’s attention spans. In the long term, this can lead to low performance at work or school, and other mental health issues.
TikTok’s infinite scroll feeds you new information all the time. As a result, heavy social media users have to exert more effort to remain focused. You might also experience memory deficits.
Generally, social media is designed to be addictive. Young people, in particular, can struggle with feelings of depression and anxiety as a result of excessive online interaction and overstimulation. They may also be exposed to inappropriate content and feel pressured to partake in dangerous trends.
You can learn more about the risks of social media to kids and how to protect your child in our guide to keeping kids safe on TikTok.
10 Privacy Settings to Change on TikTok
It’s challenging to protect your privacy when using TikTok. However, there are several steps you can take to limit the information TikTok can collect about you.
Use a VPN to hide your personal information from TikTok
A VPN adds a layer of security to your internet connection. By encrypting your data, VPNs prevent apps from accessing your location, IP address, and other sensitive information. We strongly recommend using a VPN when accessing TikTok and other social media apps.
A good VPN will prevent TikTok from knowing your location and IP address and snooping on your online activity.
After testing tons of VPN providers, our top choice is NordVPN. This VPN has proved reliable, safe, and speedy. It even allowed us to access TikTok in countries where it’s banned, such as India.
Moreover, NordVPN is super affordable and easy to use on any device. You can take advantage of NordVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee to try it for free and get a refund if you don’t want to continue using it. We were able to get a refund within a few days of canceling without any questions asked.
- Fast and large worldwide network of VPN servers
- Perfect for privacy and streaming
- Trusted by many, with over 14 million users
Turn off Personalized Ads
TikTok collects information about your preferences and online activity to show you personalized ads. This can be pretty invasive, but you can stop this by following the steps below:
- Tap the “profile icon” at the bottom right of the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line menu and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Tap “Ads” and toggle off “Personalized ads.”
Manage TikTok permissions
Social media apps may require access to your contacts, microphone, and camera. For improved privacy, we recommend blocking TikTok from accessing these functions.
Note:
If you post content on TikTok, you will need to leave the permissions enabled, but if you are only viewing content on TikTok, you can turn off these permissions.
Follow these steps to control what TikTok can access on your device.
On iOS
- Go to “Settings” on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on TikTok.
- Toggle off “Microphone,” “Camera,” “Contacts,” and “Allow Tracking.”
Note:
“Allow Tracking” is an exclusive feature on devices running on iOS 14.5 and beyond. It allows you to choose whether an app can track your activity across other apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers.
You can apply this setting to all other apps on your phone using the steps below:
- Go to “Settings” and select “Privacy.”
- Tap “Tracking” and toggle off “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”
On Android
- Go to “Settings” and select “Apps & Notifications.”
- Tap “TikTok” and then select “Permissions.”
- Toggle off access to “Location,” “Camera,” “Microphone,” “Contacts,” and “Files and Media.”
Turn off TikTok Location Services
TikTok tracks your location to show you relevant TikTok videos that are popular in your area. This is one of the major privacy concerns we spotted when analyzing the app. You can prevent TikTok from tracking your location by following the steps below:
- Tap the profile icon at the bottom right of the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line menu at the top.
- Select “Settings and privacy,” and tap “Privacy.”
- Tap “Location Services” and select “Never.”
Even when you turn off access to your location, TikTok will continue to gauge your approximate location from your device’s or network information.
That’s why it’s vital to use a VPN to mask your IP address and prevent TikTok from knowing your location.
Make your account private and hide your activity status
Like most social media apps, TikTok will attempt to share your account with everyone you know. It also tries to connect you with people you don’t know to build a community. But you may not want everyone to follow you on TikTok. To prevent this, you can make your account private.
In addition to making your TikTok account private, we recommend hiding your activity status. Your activity status allows people who follow you to see when you are active or were last active.
Follow the steps below to make your TikTok account private and hide your activity status.
- Open TikTok and tap the profile icon at the far right of the bottom navigation bar.
- Tap the three-line menu at the top right of the page.
- Tap “Settings and Privacy.”
- Tap on “Privacy” and toggle on “Private account.”
- Below that, toggle off “Activity Status.”
With these settings enabled, people can still find you on TikTok, but they won’t be able to see your content unless you accept their follow request. They also won’t be able to see when you’re online.
Stop TikTok from recommending your account to other people and turn off contacts synching
TikTok recommends your account to others so that you can get more followers. But this isn’t great from a privacy standpoint, as you may not want everyone to see your account.
You can prevent the app from doing this by following the steps below:
- Tap the profile icon at the bottom right of the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line menu at the top right corner.
- Go to “Settings and privacy,” and select “Privacy.” Then click “Suggest your account to others.”
- Toggle off all four options, namely “Contacts,” “Facebook friends,” “People with mutual connections,” and “People who open or send links to you.”
- Tap the “back” arrow at the top left of the page to return to the “Privacy” page and select “Sync contacts and Facebook friends.”
- Ensure both options are toggled off.
Restrict who can tag and mention you on TikTok
If someone knows your TikTok username, they can tag you in videos or mention you in a comment. This can be annoying and expose you to more people who may see the tag. To prevent this, follow the steps below:
- Tap the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line menu at the top right and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Tap “Privacy” and then select “Mentions and tags.”
- Tap “Tags” and select “No one.”
- Tap “Mentions” and select “No one.”
Control who can message you
Is TikTok dangerous? Well, it can be, especially if you let just anyone message you. People may send you dangerous links, spam, or abusive messages. To prevent this, follow the steps below to control who can send you direct messages on the TikTok app.
- Tap the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line menu at the top right and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Tap “Privacy” and then select “Messaging.”
- Again, tap “Messaging” and select one of the four options. If you don’t want to get messages from anyone, select “No one.”
- Once done, you can also toggle off “Read status” to prevent others from knowing when you’ve seen their messages.
- You can also toggle on “Filtered requests” to ensure messages from suspicious or spam accounts are automatically filtered from your inbox.
Control Story, Duet, Stitch, and Stickers Interactions
Stories, Duet, Stitch, and Stickers are all TikTok features that allow other users to interact with your videos. You can control who can add you to their Stories or Duet and Stitch your videos by following these steps:
- Tap the profile icon at the bottom of the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line menu at the top and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Tap “Privacy.”
- Tap on “Story,” “Stitch,” “Duet,” and “Stickers,” respectively. Then select “Only Me” from the options for each one.
Note: If you set your profile to “private,” these options will automatically be set to “Only Me” already.
Stop people from downloading your TikTok videos
Even if your TikTok account is private, your followers can download the videos you post and share them with others. But you can block this by changing the setting below:
- Tap the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line menu at the top right and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Tap “Privacy” and then select “Downloads.”
- Toggle off “Video downloads” to prevent anyone from downloading the videos you post.
Even when you block others from downloading your TikTok videos, people can still use screen recorder apps or other third-party software to make copies of your content. This is a major privacy risk, and the only way to avoid this is to refrain from posting anything.
How to Delete Your TikTok Account
Knowing how much data TikTok collects, you may be considering getting rid of the app. If you’re convinced TikTok is bad, here’s how to delete your TikTok account:
- Tap the profile icon on the TikTok home screen.
- Tap the three-line in the top right corner and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Select “Account.”
- Tap “Deactivate or delete account.”
- You can deactivate your account if you want to temporarily stop using it. However, to toss TikTok permanently, select “Delete account permanently.”
- Select a reason or select “Skip.”
- You can choose to download your data by selecting “Request download.”
- Otherwise, tick the box at the bottom of the screen and tap “Continue.”
- Follow the confirmation prompts and verify your account login details.
- Tap “Delete account” and then “Delete.”
Your account will be scrubbed, and you will be redirected to the signup screen.
Final Thoughts: Is TikTok Bad?
TikTok is not a privacy-friendly app. In some ways, it’s more invasive than other social media platforms, though it’s important to note that all social media companies collect tons of private information.
The allegation that TikTok is a Chinese spy app used to gather intel on American citizens is unfounded. While there are plenty of security issues and privacy scandals, there is no proof that the TikTok app is an extension of the Chinese government. If anything, a platform like Facebook would be just as much a threat to American citizens, if not more.
This doesn’t mean that TikTok is without risks. These risks include excessive data collection, possible data sharing with third platforms, exposure to cybercrime and online predators, and serious mental health consequences.
The best way to prevent TikTok from accessing sensitive information like your location and IP address is to use a VPN. We’ve found NordVPN to be the most effective and easy-to-use VPN for TikTok. You can get a 30-day free trial and test it for a month at no cost.
Check out the articles below to learn how to improve your anonymity on other apps and platforms:
- How to Remove Personal Information From Google Search
- How to Change Your WhatsApp Privacy Settings
- Facebook Privacy Settings: The Ultimate Guide
- How to Improve Your Twitter Privacy Settings
- Instagram Privacy Settings: How to Secure Your Account
Do you have questions about TikTok? Want to know if this app is spying on you? Check out our FAQ below. Tap a question below to view the answer.
TikTok can be dangerous from a privacy standpoint because it collects a lot of user information and does not disclose what it does with it. You can protect yourself by using NordVPN to access TikTok anonymously and prevent the app from tracking your location, IP address, and other sensitive information. Check out our NordVPN review to learn more about this service.
Yes, TikTok collects your email address, phone number, age, search and browsing history, information about what’s in the photos and videos you upload, and even the contents of your device’s clipboard. This invasive data collection compromises your security. Learn how to protect yourself by reading our guide to optimizing your privacy settings on TikTok.
TikTok asks for a lot of device permissions, including location information. You can turn this off from the TikTok settings on your device. But even when you turn off location tracking, the app can still get your approximate location. For a more private experience, it’s better to use TikTok alternatives such as Triller or Instagram, which collect relatively less data.
Several governments have labeled TikTok a privacy threat and banned or restricted its use. The danger with using TikTok is that it’s impossible to know what ByteDance does with user data. The best way to protect yourself on TikTok is to use a good VPN to access the app anonymously.
Hi, so given what I have been reading obviously there is a great concern with the Tik Tok app. My question is this; I have had the app for some time now.. around six or seven months now.. So if I delete the app now will my phone and my information still be at risk given that whomever it may be that is monitoring or collecting my information will have plenty of time to do their damage… What might you advise?
When you delete the app, it will no longer be able to track or monitor information directly from your device. However, the data that was collected shall still remain on TikTok's servers. You can request a copy of all the data that TikTok has on you by going to Settings and Privacy > Manage Account > Download your data.
It's important to note that TikTok shares your data with other apps, and vice versa. If you are planning to take control of your privacy, deleting the app would be the first step.
Thank you for writing this article! Do VPNs help to mitigate our exposure?
Yes, they do. Although a VPN won't completely out of TikTok's hands, it does hide your IP address. You can read more about what a VPN does in our "VPN Explained" article. Do keep in mind, though, that TikTok is still able to track your online behavior on the app from the moment you create and use your TikTok account!
Hi! I don’t have the app but occasionally friends send me videos to view. Is there danger even going to the site?
Up to some degree, yes. Although TikTok won't be able to follow you as closely as they would be if you created an account, they can still use fingerprinting techniques to track you and your browser.
Once you’ve deleted the app from your phone, does that disable the invasive trackers?
Great question! Yes and no. You would need to remove the app and all of its content from your device. We also recommend deleting your TikTok account completely if you are concerned with the privacy risks of the social media platform.
Not too long ago, I was confronted with a weird email from TikTok that requested
I proceed with my registration even though I did not seek to register with them.
So I ignored their request to register and
deleted the strange email request from them. Then yesterday, I got another strange
intrusive email from them implying that I had attempted to login into an nonexistent
account with them from another continent.
I was thinking someone from their weird TikTok organisation may have gotten hold of my email account and registered without my knowledge or consent and then then try to scam me with a so-called login notification, that have nothing to do with me.
It was really scary. I suspect they misused my email. I hope this sort of strange occurrence would never occur again. It was very
distressing to me to be harassed via my
personal email in this manner.
I think TikTok is creepy. They are dangerously implying I have an account with them when in fact I don’t and never have anything to do with them.
I think this need to be investigated and need to stop.
It seems that there are more people who have had the same experience: emails from TikTok (or seemingly from TikTok) claiming they have an account when they never created one. Although there isn't much you can do to keep those emails from being sent, there are a few things you can do to make sure you won't be bothered by them anymore. First of all, we recommend marking the emails as spam. This will help keep any more emails from the same sender out of your inbox. Aside from that, we recommend not interacting with the emails at all. Especially if you don't have a TikTok account and don't want one, either, there's no reason to click any links in these emails. We hope this helps, and that this is the last you've seen of these annoying emails!