Podcast host Joe Rogan has warned TikTok users about the privacy and safety concerns posed by the Chinese-owned social media platform, saying that ultimately their data end up in the hands of the regime in Beijing.
Rogan said on the latest episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” that he had fallen “down a TikTok rabbit hole” reading the company’s lengthy terms of service. “This is so crazy.”
TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, and U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that American users’ data may be used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which could pose national security risks.
“Listen to this, this is from TikTok’s privacy policy,” Rogan said. “It said, ‘We collect certain information about the device you use to access the platform, such as your IP address, user region.’ This is really crazy.
“‘User agent, mobile carrier, time zone settings, identifiers for advertising purpose, model of your device, the device system, network type, device IDs, your screen resolution and operating system, app and file names and types.’”
“So all your apps and all your file names, all the things you have filed away on your phone, they have access to that,” he said. “‘File names and types, keystroke patterns or rhythms.’”
‘They Know Everything’
“So they’re monitoring your keystrokes, which means they know every [expletive] thing you type,” Rogan said.
The host then reeled off a list of more user information that is collected by the short video app, including battery state, audio settings, and connected audio devices.
As stated on TikTok’s privacy policy, the video hosting service uses information including the device ID and user ID to identify user activity across multiple devices to “give you a seamless log-in experience and for security purposes.”
“‘We may also associate you with information collected from devices other than those you use to log into the platform,’” Rogan continued to read.
