Massive collection of user data

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To function, display targeted ads or relevant videos, TikTok requires extensive access to its users' devices. On the website of the ToSDR association, which simplifies and analyzes the terms of use of various applications and services, TikTok achieves an E score , the worst rating in the ranking. However, its terms of use are quite similar to those of other social networks: again on ToSDR, neither Facebook, Twitter, Instagram nor Snapchat do better.

When it comes to TikTok's embedded tracking tools, the app is also close to its competitors. Exodus Privacy, an association that analyzes Android apps, notes that TikTok requests a large number of user permissions: the app has access to the device's microphone, contacts, camera, storage, and geolocation data.

The Chinese app requires more than seventy-six permissions from its users to run on an Android device, some of which theoretically allow TikTok to spy on all the user's keystrokes – a feature that ByteDance acknowledged the existence of , but assured that it was not being used. For comparison, Instagram 's Android app requires forty-six permissions on the user's phone, as does Twitter , while Snapchat requires sixty.

The exact extent of data collected by TikTok remains difficult to estimate with certainty: according to security researchers , the app employs numerous techniques that legitimately limit the risks of industrial espionage, but which also, de facto, allow it to conceal the exact extent of data collection.

TikTok's appetite has earned it the attention of data protection authorities. In France, the CNIL (French Data Protection Authority) has already sanctioned TikTok's parent company for failing to comply with rules regarding the placement of cookies on its website (not the app). Meanwhile, the Irish Data Protection Authority opened an investigation in 2021 to determine whether TikTok was transferring users' personal data to China—a fact that TikTok finally acknowledged in November 2022, prompted by several investigations in the American press. However, the company assures that the data is secure and that only a few carefully selected employees can access it.

Risk of Beijing espionage
In December 2022, TikTok acknowledged that, as Forbes had revealed , several of its employees had spied on journalists using the app's geolocation capabilities. TikTok admitted its mistake, and the employees japan mobile database for the spying were fired. The incident further fueled suspicion. In 2020, Donald Trump was already seeking to ban the app in the United States, accusing it of spying for Beijing—without providing any evidence.

The issue is so sensitive because TikTok's owner, ByteDance, is subject to China's 2017 Intelligence Law. This law, which Huawei, for example, has already suffered, stipulates that Chinese companies and businesses are required to cooperate with the country's intelligence services when requested. This measure also extends to Chinese companies operating outside the country and could therefore, in theory, apply to data collected by TikTok.

In a context of tense international relations with Beijing, it is understandable that caution is dictating the position of European institutions. It should nevertheless be remembered that the United States has had a fairly similar legislative arsenal since 2018, the Cloud Act , which allows American intelligence to access data hosted or stored by a national actor, such as Microsoft or Amazon.