Surveillance issue: Everything to Know about TikTok’s Surveillance on You
Is this use of data a type of surveillance? Short answer, yes.
According to Business of Apps, TikTok generated over $500 million in U.S. revenue alone in 2020. TikTok is able to generate over half a billion dollars in revenue while remaining free to users because it operates under what is known as a “surveillance economy”. Popularized by major platforms like Google and Facebook(more on them later), a surveillance economy incentivizes popular platforms to monetize their users by collecting user data, drawing trends from said data, then selling those trends to high-paying advertisers.
The exact type of surveillance is known as “automated surveillance”. In terms of TikTok, automated surveillance is the storage, collection, and processing of any useful information on users. This information can range from simple variables like age and gender to the most detailed bits of information like what time a day a user usually visits or the average amount of time spent on a particular post.
The more detailed information the better because it allows TikTok to package and pitch that information to advertisers.
An example of how this works + how TikTok benefits:
It’s widely accepted that 18-34 is the most coveted age demographic in advertising due to their willingness to spend money, receptiveness to advertisements, and ability as tastemakers.
Low-end estimations have TikTok averaging 80 million monthly active users in the United States. Of those 80 million, Statista.com reports that almost 70 percent of users are between the ages of 10-40. That means TikTok is able to reach 56 million users aged 10-40 every month.  For comparison Facebook, the largest social media platform in the world, averages over 100 million more monthly active U.S. users(190 million) than TikTok, but only 43 percent cover the 10-40 demographic. This closes the margin to Facebook’s 76 million of the most coveted users on earth to TikTok’s 56 million.
If TikTok is able to prove to advertisers that their 56 million users are more valuable than Facebook’s 76 million users through engagement statistics, gender data, or retention rates, then they own a major market over one of the founders of the economy.
This brings me to my next point.
What are the major implications of TikTok’s storage of user data?
On one end of the spectrum, the end of the spectrum that TikTok wants users to believe, the only implication that stems from storing user data is a better in-app experience. TikTok will only use user data to make sure users see videos of things they enjoy, advertisements of products they wished they had, and recommendations of accounts they’d like to follow. This is how Google knows exactly what you’re looking for no matter how obscure and how Facebook is able to show you just the post you would like.
So what’s the catch? I already mentioned it.
Users can’t get the good end of the spectrum without the risk of falling victim to the bad. Whether it be through data breaches like the $92 million one TikTok had to pay to settle or through scandals like the one between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, there are numerous examples of the negative implications of platforms collecting user data.
If you’re interested in learning more about things like automated surveillance, surveillance economy, and how much your data is worth, here are some readings you can check out:
Who Owns America’s Personal Information and What is it Worth?