Technology

Let’s see, we have a screen name, and an email or phone number. Then we have all the public videos you post and the public videos you like. None of that is private personal information. The worst I could find is that you can give access to it to search your contacts for more TikTok users. Also, there is a chat feature. Maybe people are using the chat with an expectation that it is secure?

I don’t like China either, but to get anything usable for espionage out of it China would have to set up AI systems that dig through the data looking for specific topics of conversation and then match those conversations to a list of users through the contacts list. I feel like it is a security risk, but far more relevant to Chinese citizens than US citizens, whom China has no control over. China has no reason to care if you talk shit about President Xi. For a Chinese citizen however, that is a different story.

US firms such as Google, Facebook, and Snapchat have far more data about you. They literally know your location at any moment and the contents of your cell phone. They know the contents of your private text messages, private photos, and private videos. Google develops a profile about you that can literally predict where you will be at any time of the day and guess where you work (they also share some of this info with you). All of this data is presumably stored in the USA, the same country that actually has power over you, if you are American. It can also be subpoenaed at any time or the data can be just willingly shared en mass with the 3 letter agencies at any time.

The TikTok boogeyman hides the actual personal data holders you should be concerned about.