Chinese Video-sharing platform TikTok has revealed plans to collect biometric information that include voiceprints and faceprint of users in the U.S. This has been unveiled in a new privacy policy section for users in the U.S. TikTok, in the privacy policy said that the company “may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information” from users in the U.S.
The new privacy policy reminds people of WhatsApp’s privacy policy that was a controversial topic for months, and of course TikTok is already receiving its share of backlash.
“We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under U.S. laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content. Where required by law, we will seek any required permissions from you prior to any such collection”, the Chinese company explained.
Shedding more light on the new privacy policy, the company also said that it may collect information “such as identifying the objects and scenery that appear, the existence and location within an image of face and body features and attributes, the nature of the audio, and the text of the words spoken in your User Content”
“As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, we recently updated our Privacy Policy to provide more clarity on the information we may collect”, A TikTok spokesperson told The Verge.
In states such as California, New York, Texas and Illinois, there are privacy biometric laws in place. On Thursday, there was an increase on the number of companies that were banned in the U.S. from 48 to 50, and it is still not known how the U.S. President will address the ban on TikTok.
A lawsuit against TikTok claimed that the company took “highly sensitive personal data” and used it to track users as well as use the information for target advertising. The company, in February, agreed to pay $92 million to settle this lawsuit. The company also settled a lawsuit of $1.1 million in 2019 after it was accused of breaching the privacy of children. The company also paid $5.7million to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after its acquisition Musical.ly, which was merged with another app to form TikTok, was accused of failing to gain parental approval for young users.
TikTok is used to make short but creative videos that range from 15 seconds to one minute, and is owned by parent company ByteDance.
