Arecent report exposed just how much data TikTok collects and showed that the app has the capability to trace users’ keyboard inputs,including passwords and credit cards. When users click on links within the app,they are taken to an in-app browser controlled by TikTok,rather than to a browser of their choice. In TikTok’s browser,every user interaction is monitored in minute detail.
The scope of data surveillance by TikTok may be even more expansive than other popular social media apps because,unlike other apps,TikTok does not give users the option to open links in their default browser and thus keeps them locked into its digital ecosystems and under its constant gaze.
The extensive and detailed data collected in this way is fed to TikTok’s algorithms that generate highly personalised content designed to grab users’ attention and keep them within the app for as long as possible. This model is not unique to TikTok. However,TikTok’s tactics are particularly concerning because of its uniquely young user base.
In Australia,around 72 per cent of the app’s users are under the age of 25 and around 30 per cent are under the age of 15. We are all susceptible to the mind-shifting effects of social media due to the prevalence of echo chambers and systematic bias in the information we are shown. However,young people – especially adolescents – are particularly vulnerable to social media induced psychological stresses,which can result inanxiety,depression and self-harm.
It is quite likely that our future prime minister and cabinet members are being surveilled.
Another point to consider is TikTok’s ties with China. There have been multiple indications of the links between TikTok,its parent company ByteDance and the Chinese government. Arecent report found that 300 employees at TikTok and ByteDance were previously employed by Chinese state media publications,and some still are.
An additional sign of the Chinese government’s influence over the two companies is that it took a stake and a board seat in a key ByteDance entity last year. This move calls into question the independence of ByteDance and TikTok and raises concerns that they may be used to propagate pro-China messaging in the West.