TikTok is one of the hottest apps, on millions — maybe a billion? — phones, and its videos are seen around the world.
But what personal information are users sharing on TikTok and how can they protect themselves? Consumer Reports researched the TikTok privacy settings that should adjusted now.
Start with the profile: Setting your TikTok account to private is a great way to get a little bit more control over who can see the stuff on your profile. While TikTok is a social media company, it makes its money through advertising, just like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Something that’s really valuable for tech companies is building a huge network of everyone who you know — your friends, your family, your co-workers. They present it as a way for you to find your acquaintances, which can be great, but it also gives them a lot of information about you. And you might not want to do that.
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To make sure TikTok doesn’t have access to your contacts or Facebook friends, toggle those settings off.
Just above that setting, you can tell TikTok not to suggest your account to your contacts, Facebook friends or others—that is, if you’re not interested in having followers on the platform.
TikTok and other companies use more than just information about your friends and family for their targeted ad campaigns.
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You might not realize it, but TikTok has code spread all over the Internet on websites and apps to collect data about things you do when you’re not on the app. There’s nothing you can do to stop that entirely, but you can use a setting to control whether TikTok can use that data for targeted ads. And that’s a good idea to protect your privacy.
And to protect yourself from hackers — not only on TikTok but on other apps as well — Consumer Reports one of the most important things you can do is set up multifactor authentication: That’s when you’re sent a code through a text or an email when using an app. So you'll need not only your password but also access to your phone or your email account to get in. That extra layer of security does a lot to keep the bad guys out.
Consumer Reports says that, although these settings will help, you can never expect total privacy when using social media.
