Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
TikTok’s new U.S. venture makes changes to its privacy policy that include expanding the types of location data the company can collect from its 200 million U.S. users.
The new policy comes after investors struck a deal Thursday with TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to run the popular short-video app’s operations in the United States.
In its updated privacy terms, the new venture says it can now “collect precise location data based on your settings” — a change from its previous policy that allowed for the collection of “approximate” location data.
TikTok did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment on the change.
The company policy adds that sensitive personal information will be processed “in accordance with applicable law” and that users can turn off location services at any time in their device settings.
Even before the new company was founded, TikTok collected location information based on users’ SIM cards or IP addresses or both.
But according to the 2024 version of the privacy policy, it doesn’t even collect approximate GPS information from U.S. users running the latest version of the app.
Precise location sharing is not yet enabled in the US, and the feature is expected to be optional and turned off by default, so users will be asked to opt-in via a pop-up message. TikTok has not yet revealed when U.S. users will receive the update.
TikTok has collected similar data from users in the UK and Europe as part of a new “Nearby Feed” feature that lets users find events and businesses near them.
The new U.S. TikTok joint venture also expands its authority to collect information about users’ interactions with TikTok’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
This includes user-submitted tips and questions, as well as information about how, when, and where the AI ​​content was prompted or created.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, made up of three managing investors including cloud computing giant Oracle, is investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure and taking on large amounts of debt to fund its ambitions in the emerging field.
Oracle is chaired by Larry Ellison, a Republican megadonor and long-time ally of President Donald Trump, whose administration helped broker the U.S. TikTok deal.
The deal comes after years of wrangling between Washington and Beijing that began during Trump’s first term as president, when he unsuccessfully tried to ban the app over national security concerns.
In 2024, the United States passed a law requiring ByteDance to be banned in the United States by January 2025 if the platform fails to sell its U.S. operations to U.S. investors.
Trump repeatedly delayed implementation of the legislation until the joint venture was finalized this week.
The 2024 law was prompted in part by concerns that Beijing could obtain data on TikTok’s U.S. users.
In a statement on Thursday, the new joint venture said its mission is to “protect the security of U.S. user data, applications and algorithms through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures.”
Oracle will oversee the retraining of TikTok’s powerful content recommendation algorithm on existing U.S. user data, the joint venture said in a statement, adding that the algorithm “will be protected in Oracle’s U.S. cloud environment.”
ByteDance retains a nearly 20% minority stake in the joint venture.
Other managed investors include U.S. technology investment firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi state investment fund MGX, which has done business with the Trump family’s cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial.
On Friday, Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, expressed concern about ByteDance’s continued involvement in TikTok’s U.S. operations.
“Does this agreement ensure that China will not have influence over the algorithms? Can the parties involved assure Americans that their data is safe?” he said in a statement.
“These are questions that need to be answered as the special committee oversees this transaction.”
