Say ‘no’ to TikTok: Cybersecurity expert heeds caution on using platform

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Say “no” to TikTok, that is the advice from a cybersecurity expert to parents as concerns about the social media company mount.

A March report from the Associated Press shows the Federal Trade Commission is investigating TikTok over privacy and security concerns.

The problems include whether TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, deceived users when denying individuals in China access to American user data and if the company collected personal information of children under the age of 13 without parental consent.

“TikTok has been under fire for being incredibly aggressive about the data they collect even compared with Facebook and Google, where their entire business model is based off of your data,” cybersecurity expert Dave Hatter explained. “TikTok has been singled out for being super aggressive.”

Hatter said data collected about you could impact your everyday life without you even knowing it.

He mentioned the potential to raise your health insurance rates, for example, which was first uncovered in a ProPublica and NPR joint investigation.

“I constantly hear the, ‘Well, I don’t have anything to hide, I don’t care about privacy;’ I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think you understand how much data is being collected about you and how detailed that is,” Hatter said. “TikTok and all of these apps are collecting enormous amounts of very detailed, psychological information about you: where you go, what you do, who you talk to.”

Hatter, himself a parent, says this type of data collection is one reason why his teenage son does not have access to TikTok.

“Something you do today as a kid, something that might be perfectly acceptable today, might not be acceptable 20 years from now and come back to bite you,” Hatter warns. “Things that you’re saying or doing that you think are funny, you don’t have any ill intent, but you don’t really understand because you’re a kid, could come back to bite you.”

A look at the TikTok privacy label in Apple’s App Store shows TikTok has access to everything from financial information to your search history.

Hatter says he encourages everyone to look at these privacy labels before they download any app to their devices.

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