I’m sure you’ve heard of TikTok-- you know the app we’ve all been addicted to since the beginning of quarantine. Whether you have been making the TikTok videos or just watching them-- listen up. I’ve said it before and I’m not shy to say it again, TikTok is a Chinese program, it’s surveillance, a data mine. Notice why your phone gets so hot when you’re on the app? OR how you get a lot of views on your first few posts? This is my opinion, but read on for yourself.

So let’s get to some facts. There has always been a lot of controversy behind the Chinese-owned app and it was brought to court for invading privacy issues in 2019. India has recently banned TikTok as the government’s attempt to “protect” its 1.3 billion online users. 

TikTok was caught by researchers in February for its clipboard access. ByteDance, the developer behind TikTok, didn't take steps to correct the excessive data access until Emojipedia creator Jeremy Burge and several other users noticed iOS 14's new paste notification feature alerted him that the app was "grabbing the contents of my clipboard every 1-3 keystrokes."

TikTok said the app was constantly reading users' clipboards as a way to combat spam. "For TikTok, this was triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior. We have already submitted an updated version of the app to the App Store removing the anti-spam feature to eliminate any potential confusion."

Two months ago, a Reddit user (Bangorlol) reverse engineered TikTok and found multiple suspicious features in its software and shared his red flag findings with Reddit. Bangorlol is a senior software engineer who’s job description includes reverse engineering applications to improve app performance. Here’s an overview of what he found and what we think is worth considering:

• TikTok is a data collection service disguised as a social media network that may be collecting your app download history, phone hardware details, network-related details, GPS-related detail, and more.

• TikTok can remotely access your data with their local proxy server, which basically uploads your data without you knowing it

• There are excessive software protections in place to prevent anyone from debugging the app compared to other social media apps

• A user’s first post will always incite vitality to hook them onto the app

• Many 40-50 year old men have access to young 8-10 year old girls to do “duets” to their sexually suggested dances 

• TikTok collects far more data than Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit, “It’s like comparing a cup to an ocean”

• Prior to its current HTTPS domain, it was previously carelessly leaking out user’s name, birthdays and email contacts to the public

There has been a lot of criticism of Bangorlol's claims and in his recent Reddit update he disclosed that the evidence is on his “broken” laptop. Bangorlol has chose to keep his identity private, but there are some articles that he has extended his commentary: BoredPanda. Which to me, is quite suspicious but all his findings could be a reason why my phone would overheat so much whenever I’m carelessly on TikTok. 

MORE BAD NEWS:

In the digital age of social media, all apps will be collecting some extent of data on us whether we like it or not. That’s the trade off for free apps. It’s more important for us, consumers, to become aware of these practices. Before you know it, social media might know us better than we know ourselves and that’s the dark side of technology.

Departing words:

News apps are also accessing clipboards ( which can include passwords and other data) without letting users know. ArsTechnica names apps from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, and more. None of them have reportedly updated their apps (yet) to reduce or remove the amount of clipboard access.