TikTok And YouTube Were Found To Collect More User Data Than Any Other Social Networks

A study by URL Genius shows that TikTok and YouTube have collected more user data than any other social networking app. While YouTube does this for its own benefit (advertising), TikTok allows third-party trackers to collect user data, so it’s hard to know what’s going on. where TikTok users will go and what they will be used for.

Research shows that the video platform owned by Google, YouTube collects user data primarily for the benefit of the platform itself. This is done to track browsing history or location to display advertisements. relevant reports to users. In contrast, TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which primarily allows third-party trackers to collect users’ personal data for various purposes.

When it comes to learning about third-party trackers allowed by TikTok, it’s virtually impossible to figure out who is collecting TikTok’s user data and what kind of information it is. This can be many types of data, including location information as well as personal information that apps have access to. Research also shows that third-party trackers can track user activity even after exiting the app.

“Consumers currently cannot know what data is being pulled from the TikTok social network from third parties or how their data will be used,” said the study’s author.

The research of URL Genius used the App Activity Recording feature available on the iOS operating system. With the help of this feature, researchers were able to determine how many different domains monitor user activity in YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat apps , Messenger and WhatsApp. YouTube and TikTok each created 14 different addresses, significantly more than other social networking apps, with only 6 address connections on average.

It can also be determined that 10 YouTube trackers belong to the service. This means that the platform is essentially monitoring user activity for its own benefit. At the same time, 4 trackers passed data to third parties. In the case of TikTok, 13 of the 14 trackers shared data with third parties, and the tracking didn’t stop even if the user didn’t grant permission in the app settings.

TikTok has been the subject of criticism in the past for its collection and use of user data, especially in the case of underage users of the platform. Last year, TikTok’s privacy policy mentioned that TikTok may share user data with the service’s parent company, although there have been claims that the platform follows security measures to ” protect the privacy of user data”.