The popular Chinese-backed social media app TikTok can now collect American biometric data like faceprints and voiceprints in an updated privacy policy established earlier this week.
The company already has access to a large portion of data collected from their young users such as their name, age, location, social media relations, and other personal connections given on the app. Now facial and voice recognition will be added to the list of things the app has access to.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, we recently updated our privacy policy to provide more clarity on the information we may collect and how it’s used,” a TikTok spokesperson announced in a statement.
Biometric information will now automatically be collected from users this week after the policy was changed June 2, 2021. The platform has not given any details regarding their reason for obtaining personal data from users, but states that the app will collect information only when the consent of the users is required by law.
In May 2020, two minors filed a suit against the social media company for allegedly using personal data without user’s consent. The app paid $92 million for the settlement after violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The company has since then developed a plan to obtain biometric information.
With concern for this new policy buzzing, apprehensive users are rethinking about using the app after not knowing its motives for collecting biometric data.
This article was written by Melanie Prieto for BackstageOL.com
