How TikTok tracks you, in a nutshell
Seven steps, from opening an account to being labelled. Scroll to follow the data.
↓Opening an account
I open a TikTok account on “the social network with more than 1.2 billion users.”
What the app collects
Location, plus camera, video, audio, purchases, messages, device settings, network/geolocation and time of use.
Who receives the data
The data goes to 16 data brokers, “which are companies” that trade user data.
brokers
Cross-platform linking
Data moves “from one social network to another.” Activity from one person’s Instagram (Ravizza) reaches another person’s TikTok (Gabanelli) through a data broker, because the second phone “is connected to the same Wi-Fi network.”
broker
Same Wi-Fi network
Data brokers in the chain
Example: search → ad
A Google search for “Samsung printer” leads to Samsung ads on TikTok. The ad content involves “Sprinklr, a company that is a TikTok partner,” which works across Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp and Facebook.
Profiling
Facebook, TikTok and data brokers build a profile of the user that includes ethnicity, social status, economic status and health. This isn’t based on what users declare, “but on their searches.”
Resulting labels
Users get tagged with categories such as “prone to depression,” “dependent on medication” and “very poor.”
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