{"id":1641677,"date":"2022-09-15T11:02:46","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T15:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1641677"},"modified":"2022-09-15T11:05:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T15:05:02","slug":"tiktok-denies-collecting-u-s-users-biometric-data-its-privacy-policy-suggests-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tiktok-denies-collecting-u-s-users-biometric-data-its-privacy-policy-suggests-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok Denies Collecting U.S. Users\u2019 Biometric Data. Its Privacy Policy Suggests Otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftiktok-denies-collecting-u-s-users-biometric-data-its-privacy-policy-suggests-otherwise%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1641677&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>TikTok\u2019s privacy policy explicitly allows for the collection of biometric data but the Chief Operating Officer\u00a0Vanessa Pappas <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/09\/14\/tiktok-claims-its-not-collecting-u-s-users-biometric-data-despite-what-privacy-policy-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> Congress on Wednesday that the\u00a0social media company does not use \u201cany sort of facial, voice or audio, or body recognition that would identify an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pappas\u2019s answer came during an exchange with Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema who wanted to know if Americans\u2019 biometric data was ever retrieved or sent to people in China. <\/p>\n<p>Sinema\u2019s question is a fair one considering that TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, which is required by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/on-tiktok-its-all-fun-and-games-until-beijing-wants-your-info-china-ccp-national-security-app-store-apple-google-information-data-11658347613\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">law<\/a> to give communist China access to any data it requests. TikTok claims it would deny any demands for this data but the company\u2019s history of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/07\/tiktok-claimed-it-doesnt-share-data-with-communist-china-but-evidence-says-u-s-users-are-compromised\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">problematic data access\u00a0by ByteDance employees in the surveillance state of China<\/a> does not give users a vote of confidence. <\/p>\n<p>Pappas confirmed that biometric data is collected but claimed it is only stored locally and for a temporary period. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way that we use facial recognition, for example, would be is if we\u2019re putting an effect on the creator\u2019s video \u2014 so, you were uploading a video and you wanted to put sunglasses or dog ears on your video \u2014 that\u2019s when we do facial recognition. All of that information is stored only in your device. And as soon as it\u2019s applied \u2014 like that filter is applied and posted \u2014 that data is deleted,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cSo we don\u2019t have that data.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>TikTok\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/legal\/privacy-policy-us?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">privacy policy<\/a>, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2021\/06\/03\/tiktok-just-gave-itself-permission-to-collect-biometric-data-on-u-s-users-including-faceprints-and-voiceprints\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">updated last June<\/a>, does allow the long-term collection and storage of U.S. users\u2019 data. It\u2019s only when \u201crequired by law,\u201d which only a select few states have, that TikTok pledges to \u201cseek any required permissions from you prior to any such collection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content,\u201d the policy states. <\/p>\n<p>As Tech Crunch noted in its coverage of the congressional interrogation, multiple parties including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/new-trends-may-help-tiktok-collect-your-personal-unchangeable-biometric-identifiers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ACLU<\/a>, Congress, and the former presidential administration have raised concerns about TikTok\u2019s collection of user data. Despite these concerns, TikTok <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2021\/10\/26\/tiktok-dodges-questions-about-biometric-data-collection-in-senate-hearing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dodged<\/a> questions from U.S. legislators about biometric data in October of last year. <\/p>\n<p>During Wednesday\u2019s hearing, Sinema also asked Pappas if TikTok ever \u201caltered\u201d its algorithm to censor or propagandize on behalf of Communist China. Some <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nowooski\/status\/1554210782597918721?s=20&amp;t=CgYVRjLV_MO1txq7HsCnVg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">users<\/a> have reported altered feeds but Pappas denied that TikTok does this. A TikTok spokeswoman also denied any algorithm altering on behalf of China to The Federalist.  <\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TikTok\u2019s privacy policy explicitly allows for the collection of biometric data but the Chief Operating Officer\u00a0Vanessa Pappas told Congress on Wednesday that the\u00a0social media company does not use \u201cany sort<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":1641679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1641677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1641677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1641679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1641677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1641677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1641677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}