
Thinking of erasing your TikTok presence? We are able to offer you options.
Before diving into how to manage your privacy on TikTok, it’s essential to understand what type of information the platform collects about you – and for how long TikTok retains your account data, including details about deleted accounts.
On reviewing TikTok’s privacy policy webpage? TikTok accumulates a wide range of data, comparable to most other social media platforms, and its collection list is extensive. Per TikTok:
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This includes consumer-generated content in various forms, such as feedback, images, live streams, audio recordings, videos, written text, hashtags, and digital merchandise movies that you choose to create with or add to the Platform, along with related metadata like creation date, location, and author. Although artificial intelligence may not possess a personal identity, descriptions about AI entities could potentially appear within user-generated content published on the platform.
- Information contained in messages that you create, send, or receive using the platform’s messaging capabilities is presented. As they engage with messages sent through our chat functionality during conversations with sellers showcasing products to you, as well as utilize digital assistants for purchasing objects via the Platform. Messages containing information about dispatch times, acquisition dates, and learning outcomes are often sought after by various stakeholders.
- Designated for handling fees, billing, and delivering transactions seamlessly, akin to a renowned e-commerce platform like PayPal. As part of our services, we also collect information necessary for extended warranty functionalities and to maintain a record of your transactions and buying history on or through the Platform.
- Alongside publicly available sources, authoritative bodies, esteemed organizations, and reputable charitable groups.
- When accessing various websites, apps, or shopping in-person, you track your experiences alongside purchased services or products, both online and offline. These companions also share information with us, such as cell identifiers for advertising, hashed email addresses and phone numbers, and cookie identifiers, which we utilize to facilitate matching your actions outside the Platform with your TikTok account.
TikTok collects data on the content users generate, appear in, and send via the app, including the specific contents of those messages, as well as potentially tracking fees and phone contact information? Additionally, the platform aggregates data about your preferences and transactions from various sources, including any necessary purchases facilitated through its interface.
The listing continues. You can access the full details on their privacy policy webpage; however, here’s a concise summary: Per TikTok:
- We gather information about your approximate location, combining data from your SIM card and/or internet protocol (IP) address. As we gather location information (comparable to tourist attractions, retail outlets, or other points of interest), you can opt to include this data in your Customer Content. Presently, various versions of the app do not accurately gather precise or estimated GPS information from within the United States. customers.
- We can gather information about movies, images, and audio comprising your Consumer Content, analogous to identifying objects, settings, and features within a visual composition, including facial and bodily characteristics, as well as the nature of the audio and text-based phrases spoken within your Consumer Content.
- When creating Consumer Content, certain metadata is automatically associated with it. Metadata provides supplementary information about diverse forms of content, offering viewers a richer understanding by furnishing details often concealed from view. Metadata accompanying Consumer Content describes creation, collection, modification, and formatting details – namely, who, where, when, and how the content was generated, gathered, or revised. Additionally, this feature includes information that allows other users to share the Consumer Content with your user account, similar to an account identifier.
How do humans manage to retain such vast amounts of acquired knowledge and information? The response remains ambiguous. Per TikTok,
“We retain information for as long as necessary to provide the Platform and for the other purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy.” We also preserve information when necessary to comply with contractual and regulatory requirements, as well as when it is in our legitimate business interest to do so – such as improving and expanding the platform and enhancing its security, safety, and stability – and for the purpose of exercising or defending legal claims.
TikTok does not establish a specific timeframe for the duration of its content protection, whereas it does differentiate between “as long as obligatory” and “when obligatory.” TikTok clarifies that video durations vary depending on “distinct criteria,” including the type of content and purposes for which the information is used.
Now, on to the steps for deleting your TikTok account:
- Tap the bottom of the screen within the TikTok app.
- Push the ☰ button upward.
- Faucet .
- To delete your account, faucet or delete account, then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the deletion process.
- At this level, you’re offered the opportunity to secure your knowledge, such as your video postings, prior to deleting your account, as you won’t be able to access them once it’s gone? Gain your knowledge before making important decisions.
TikTok offers a 30-day window of opportunity to reconsider before deleting an account permanently. Can you re-hop onto the platform? Simply reactivate your account during this time frame. Your comprehensive repository of data, expertise, and online presence will remain intact. After 30 days, access to those resources will be denied.
We suggest an additional measure, building upon the previous ones.
- Eliminate all sources of data from websites marketed by salespeople.
Here’s why you should consider this: given how social media companies share data with third parties, there’s a possibility that your personal information may have inadvertently ended up on one or more data broker websites. Websites sell exhaustive lists of private individuals’ information to anyone, including advertisers, spammers, and scammers, leaving privacy at risk.
While the thought of your personal information being bought and sold may leave you feeling uneasy, there is a step you can take to mitigate this concern. Our service scans high-risk knowledge dealer websites, identifying those that compromise your personal data by promoting it. The platform also provides guidance on how to extract your data from these websites, and with select products, it can even manage the extraction process for you.
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