Tiktok collects user facial features and voice features

ByteDance’s popular short video app TikTok updated its privacy policy on June 2. The privacy policy improves user information collected by the company.

It is worth noting that TikTok clearly mentions that it will collect the user’s facial features and voice features. This information was not mentioned in the previous privacy policy.

However, when the media interviewed ByteDance on this issue, the company could not explain the type of data these terms refer to, nor could it explain why it was collected in the first place.

It is well known that both facial features and voice features data biological data, and these data are unique and unmodifiable, so they are also the focus of privacy protection.

ByteDance writes:

We may collect information about the images and audio that are a part of your User Content, 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. We may collect this information to enable special video effects, for content moderation, for demographic classification, for content and ad recommendations, and for other non-personally-identifying operations. We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US 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.

Judging from the above terms, this is likely to mean that when a user publishes a short video, TikTok will analyze various data based on the content shot in the short video.

In particular, biological information such as the user’s facial features and voice features, which cannot be modified, may be used for continuous tracking after being collected.

However, how to avoid the collection of these data or how to clear the data, ByteDance refuses to reply, and users have to agree to the agreement as long as they use it.