TikTok's new US joint venture has made changes to its privacy policy that include expanding the type of location data the company can collect from its 200 million American users.
The new policy was published after investors closed a deal with TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance on Thursday to run the popular short-form video app's business in the US.
The new joint venture stated in its updated privacy terms that it may now collect precise location data, depending on your settings - a change from the previous policy that allowed for the collection of approximate location data.
TikTok did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment on this change.
The company policy added that sensitive personal information would be processed in accordance with applicable law and that users can turn off location services in their device settings at any time.
Even before the new venture was established, TikTok collected location information based on a user's SIM card or IP address. However, it stopped short of collecting even approximate GPS information from American users operating the most updated version of the app, according to a 2024 version of its privacy policy.
Precise location sharing hasn't finally been enabled in the US, but is expected to be optional and turned off by default, prompting users to opt in with a pop-up message. TikTok has not provided a timeline for when this update will reach American users.
TikTok already collects similar data from users in the UK and Europe as part of a new Nearby Feed feature designed to help users find events and businesses close to them.
The American TikTok joint venture is also broadening its permissions for gathering information about users' interactions with TikTok's artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including prompts and questions users submit as well as information on how, when, and where AI-generated content was produced.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC consists of three managing investors, including cloud computing giant Oracle, which is investing significantly in AI infrastructure and has taken on considerable debt to finance its ambitions in this growing area.
Oracle is chaired by Larry Ellison, a Republican megadonor and longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, whose administration helped broker the US TikTok deal.
This agreement comes after years of contention between Washington and Beijing that began during Trump's first presidential term, evidenced by his attempts to ban the app over national security concerns.
In 2024, US legislation mandated a ban on the platform by January 2025 if ByteDance failed to sell its US operations to American investors, a measure influenced by worries that Beijing might access TikTok's American user data.
In a statement on Thursday, the new joint venture expressed its commitment to secure U.S. user data, apps, and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures.
Oracle will lead the retraining of TikTok's powerful content recommendation algorithm using existing American user data, safeguarding it within Oracle's U.S. cloud environment.
ByteDance retains a minority stake of nearly 20% in the joint venture, alongside other managing investors like the US tech investment firm Silver Lake and the Abu-Dhabi state-owned investment fund MGX, which has partnered with Trump's crypto venture World Liberty Financial.
On Friday, Republican Representative John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China, raised concerns regarding ByteDance's continued involvement in TikTok's US operations, questioning if the deal adequately ensures that China does not influence the algorithm and whether American data will be secure.
