TikTok is a simple social media app that serves up a never-ending stream of short, addictive videos. Even without posting anything, users are trading their own information for access to the customized free feed.
There are a number of settings you can change on the app to make it a bit more private, both from the company and other people on the app. Your TikTok privacy needs will vary depending on how you’re using the short-video sharing app. If you’re churning out public content, hoping to go viral or just get some of those sweet likes, being visible can help. But if you’re just a quiet lurker, scrolling though video after video without creating content, you may want to stay as private as possible.
TikTok is owned by a Beijing-based company called ByteDance and has been banned in some countries, including India, over security and privacy concerns. It doesn’t collect more information than other social networks, but governments are concerned about how China might be able to access or use that information.
Here’s how you can limit what it collects.
If you do only one thing
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Don’t share your contacts
The app will ask you repeatedly to share your smartphone contacts or link with your Facebook account.This information can inadvertently reveal things about you and the people saved on your device. Find your friends by searching instead of handing over your entire social circle.
- To check your current settings, open the app and click on your profile, then the three lines in the top right corner. Tap Settings and Privacy → Privacy → Sync contacts and Facebook friends. If you’ve already synced your smartphone or Facebook contacts, you can remove them here and cut off access. Make sure both are off. You can also block access to your contacts in your Android or iOS privacy settings.
If you’re still concerned about privacy
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Limit ad personalization
If you want to limit how much the company and outside advertisers are able to target you, TikTok has an option you can change.
- Go to Settings and Privacy → Ads, then make sure the toggle for “Using Off-TikTok activity for ad targeting” is turned off and gray. This doesn’t stop TikTok from targeting ads but does limit the information it can use to do that. You can also clear past activity here.
- Under “How your ads are personalized,” you can manually turn off each listed interest it has picked for you.
Hide your activity
- Under Settings and Privacy → Privacy, turn off the option called Activity status. This will prevent people from seeing what your status is on the app.
Keep your profile anonymous
These steps aren’t just for people who browse TikTok. Creators should also be careful about how much identifiable information they share on the app to prevent issues like stalking or harassment.
- Sign up for your account with an alias email address, like the kind you can create in Gmail or with Apple’s Hide My Email feature. It’s less private, but you can also use a junk-mail address you don’t share with acquaintances (so it isn’t in their address books). Keep this email out of your own address card on your smartphone as well.
- You don’t need to use a phone number to set up an account and should avoid giving the app your number when you create an account or later as part of your profile. However, if you do use two-factor authentication for security (always a good idea), you can add your number in that field.
- Don’t put your full name in your profile if that information isn’t already tied to your online presence.
- Use a unique handle. If you’re always VeggieVelma on services like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, anyone can quickly track down your online presence. To keep things separate, use a one-time nickname for each app.
Make your account private
If you’re not posting for strangers, set your account to Private so you can approve who follows you.
- Go to Settings and Privacy → Privacy and turn on the “Private Account” toggle so it is green.
Stop people from seeing what else you’re doing
- Under Settings and Privacy → Privacy, scroll down and turn off Profile views and Post views.
Limit how people can find you
- Go to Settings and Privacy → Privacy → Suggest your account to others. Make sure the toggles are turned off and gray, not green, to prevent people you know from getting you as a follow suggestion if you want to be hidden.
Hide what you like
The videos you like and the people you follow can reveal a lot about you, like an affinity for thirst traps.
- Go to Settings and Privacy → Privacy. Scroll down to click on Following List and set to Only Me. Go back and do the same for Liked Videos. People can still see if you have mutual friends.
See (some of) what TikTok knows about you
There’s a way to see some of the data TikTok has amassed about you.
- In the app, Go to Settings → Privacy → Download your Data. It will take a few days, and you will then have only four days to download it.
If you want to be extra-cautious
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Don’t like things. Don’t follow people.
TikTok is famous for its algorithm, which uses subtle signals about your behavior to show you more videos you like and, it hopes, keep you on the app longer. It can be eerily accurate. Some of the cues it uses are what videos you like and which people you follow. However, you can get a perfectly fine feed without doing any of those things. That’s because the app also knows things like demographic information, how long you watch a video and when you jump to the comments or dive into a person’s other posts. That’s enough to make your For You Page seem personalized even without the additional data.
Don’t use an account
You can browse TikTok without being logged in or having an account. The company can still collect data about you in this guest mode, including your IP address and device information, but it does cut down on how much it can gather.