Updates made for the Tiktok Privacy Policy this week make it technically legal to automatically collect data on you and your activities in the application. This update includes notes on biometric identifiers – such as fingerprint scanning and “voiceprint”. In the note, Tiktok suggests that they will look for “required permissions” to get this data, but only “where the law is needed.”

As seen by TechCrunch, in the latest version of the US Privacy Policy for Tiktok, you will find changes to “image and audio information”. View Wayback machines that are saved images from this change on June 4, 2021. Scroll to “The information we collected automatically and compared to what was posted on May 30, 2021.

Removed from this area is the following sentence: “We also connect your customer information with your activities on our platform on all your devices using email, telephone number, or similar information.” It can be good – maybe Tiktok has decided to track users a little less than before – or at least that’s what it looks if this is the only change you noticed. The rest seem to move in the opposite direction.

All parts are added under “image and audio information.” There, Tiktok added a note that they can collect information “about images and auto which is part of your user content.” Tiktok notes that they can gather information by “identifying objects and scenes that appear, existence and location in the image of the face and body features and attributes, audio properties, and the text of the words spoken in your user content.”

Note Tiktok in their policy that this data can be collected to enable the following:

• Special video effects
• Moderation of Content
• Demographic classification
• Content recommendations
• Advertising recommendations
• non-personal-identification operation

As mentioned above, Tiktok also adds notes on how they can “collect biometric identifiers and biometric information.” This might include facial molds and VoicePrints “from your user content.”

They also add more descriptions covering all about how they can gather information on the device you use to access Tiktok. Previously, they included an IP address, unique device identifiers, models, cellular operators, time zones, screen resolutions, OS, application names, file names, file types, “button patterns or platforms”, and platforms.

Now, Tiktok also includes user agents, network types, “identifiers for advertising purposes,” device ID, battery status, audio settings, and connected audio devices. They have expanded their ability to gather information throughout the device, to make absolutely sure that if you get into several devices, they will “use your profile information to identify your activities throughout the device.”

Tiktok can also use “Informatuon collected from devices other than what you use to enter the platform.” It effectively gives them the right to utilize audio that comes from devices connected to your smartphone – like a connected microphone, smart speakers, and so on.