with Change in TikTok ownershipTikTok users in the US are collectively panicking over the company’s update Privacy Policy After being alerted to the change via an in-app message. The revised document details the US joint venture’s terms of use of the service, including location-specific information it may collect. There are many users Also social media posts Regarding language found in the policy, which states that TikTok may collect sensitive information about its users, including their “sex life or sexual orientation, as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status.”

But despite the panic, this revelation isn’t new — and it doesn’t mean what many users fear. The same language appears TikTok’s Privacy Policy Prior to Termination of Ownership AgreementAnd that’s primarily to comply with state privacy laws like California’s Consumer Privacy Act, which requires companies to agree to disclose what “sensitive information” is collected about consumers. Similar disclosures can be found in the policies of other social media apps.

To understand why users are concerned — and why the policy reads this way — it helps to look at both the current political climate and the legal requirements that TikTok navigates.

Specifically, the policy states that TikTok can process information from users’ content or what they share through surveys, including information about their “ethnic or racial origin, national origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnoses, sex life or sexual orientation, transgender or abinary, citizenship or immigration status, or financial information.”

It’s not surprising that Americans would find such language troubling, especially given the current political climate.

Escalation of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration has led to widespread protests across the country, which have now come to a head in Minnesota. Friday, Hundreds of businesses Their doors are closed In an economic blackout to protest the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the state. The move follows weeks of clashes between Minnesota residents and ICE agents, which resulted in Thousands of arrests and the death of an American citizen Renee Goode.

But the privacy policy language preempts this concern. on TikTok previous policy, Updated on August 19, 2024, the company explained that some of the information it collects and uses “may constitute sensitive personal information” under state privacy laws.

It then proceeds to list the same categories as examples. The legal reasons are straightforward.

Policy specifics about the types of “sensitive information” relate to state privacy laws, such as California’s California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). The latter, for example, require businesses when they collect “sensitive information” about consumers, which is defined in law as:

• A consumer’s social security, driver’s license, state identification card, or passport number
• A consumer account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card number allows access to an account with any required security or access code, password, or certificate.
• A consumer’s specific geographic location
• A consumer’s racial or ethnic origin, citizenship or immigration status, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership
• The content of a consumer’s mail, email and text messages, unless the business is the intended recipient of the communication
• A consumer’s genetic data
• Neural data of a consumer
• Biometric information intended to uniquely identify the consumer
• Personal information related to consumer health is collected and analyzed
• Personal information related to the consumer’s sex life or sexual orientation is collected and analyzed
  

Notably, California Governor Gavin Newsom Signed AB-947 into law on October 8, 2023.

Due to in-app warnings for termination of contracts (a requirement due to the new legal entity), many people are now reading TikTok’s terms and conditions for the first time. Seeing and fearing this language is the worst Social media posts about their concerns and warn others; Some are threatening delete their account.

But what TikTok’s policy actually says is that, as part of operating its app, it may process sensitive information — especially if it’s the subject of someone’s video — and that it agrees to process that sensitive information “in accordance with applicable law.”

The policy even mentions the CCPA by name as an example of the applicable laws that TikTok is complying with.

“TikTok is required by law to inform users in its privacy policy of the sensitive personal information it is collecting, how it is being used and with whom it is being shared,” explained Jennifer Daniels, a partner at the law firm Blank Rome, where she advises on regulatory and general corporate law matters.

His colleague, Philip Ianella, vice president of Blank Rome’s privacy, security and data protection practice, noted that TikTok likely decided to include this language in its privacy policy because of litigation concerns. For example, he said that recently, he has seen several claims under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) from plaintiffs’ attorneys alleging “collection of racial, immigration and ethnic information.”

Similar disclosures to TikTok can be found on other social media apps, although some companies keep explanations more up-front, while others, like TikTok, will list specific categories legally defined as “sensitive information” for added clarity.

Still, at least one lawyer TechCrunch advises points out that spelling out these specific sensitive details can actually make things less clear to end users.

As a point of comparison, Meta’s Privacy Policy is fairly granular, although it does not specifically include “immigration status” as one of the examples of sensitive information:

Users of social media often share deeply personal issues, explains Ashley Defontorum, a partner at Kinsella Holley Isser Kump Steinsappi (KHIKS) and a business litigator with experience representing software and technology companies.

“TikTok is basically saying that if you post something sensitive, that information becomes part of the content that the platform technically ‘collects’,” he told TechCrunch. “Such policies often appear alarming because they are written for regulators and litigants, not ordinary consumers. That said, wording can understandably strike users as intrusive when it’s expressed so clearly.”

TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

Of course, sharing content on social media sites is not without risk, especially under authoritarian governments that target their own citizens. These apps collect data and governments can legislate to gain access to it.

Ironically, TikTok’s decision to move its US operations to the US under new ownership was driven by these exact concerns, but with China then seen as a potential threat.

Chinese laws require companies to support state intelligence and data protection, including the National Intelligence Law of 2017 and the Data Protection Law of 2021. D Panic among US lawmakers TikTok’s ownership by a Chinese company called ByteDance could put US citizens at risk, through surveillance or subtle changes to the app’s algorithm designed to influence people or promote Chinese propaganda.

Now, people in the United States are more concerned about potential surveillance by their own government than China.