In late winter of my senior year of high school, I downloaded TikTok, shortly before it gained popularity in the following months. I wanted to become “TikTok famous”, and soon found myself recording videos of myself instead of doing homework. My friends gradually began to download it, and we found ourselves sending TikToks to each other. I’ve come to love TikTok, just like so many other Americans do.
Then came word of the possible “TikTok ban” due to national security and data privacy concerns. When the news came out, panicked TikTok creators started posting ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’ videos to the platform, telling their fans about other social media sites that they could watch their content on. All of this drama came to an end, though, because TikTok didn’t end up getting banned in the United States after all, and its American users happily continued scrolling, liking, and posting their own videos.
While the app may seem to be thriving, TikTok has some new competition. If you’re on TikTok or Instagram, you’ve probably heard of Reels, Instagram’s take on short, entertaining videos. It wasn’t until a recent Instagram update that I decided to take a look at Reels. Unsurprisingly, there was minimal original content, most of the videos clearly being reposted from TikTok. As I looked at the few Reels videos that came up, I began to wonder if it was any safer than TikTok. After all, Reels is a part of Instagram, and Instagram is owned by Facebook.
In 2018, Facebook came under fire for allowing Cambridge Analytica to access data from its users. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, testified before U.S. Congress about Facebook’s role in the scandal, a data leak involving data on 87 million people.
It doesn’t appear Facebook has kept too many of its promises since then, either. Instagram tracks you in the app just like Facebook does, and it also has the capability of tracking what you do on the Internet, even if it has nothing to do with Facebook. Furthermore, Facebook can track you even when your phone is off. It makes me wonder why I should trust Facebook–and Instagram, too, for that matter.
This is not to say that TikTok doesn’t collect data. The app’s privacy policy clearly identifies some types of data it collects, including country location and the type of device you’re using. Some of its activity is also hidden from independent researchers. As it concerns China, TikTok has said that user data is stored in the United States and Singapore—not China.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about TikTok. If China is somehow obtaining data, it could pose a national security threat. When it comes to Facebook and Instagram, we know that there have been data issues in the past, and there are concerns that not enough is being done to protect user privacy now.
It’s clear that data privacy is an issue. Luckily, there are things you can do to protect your data. Be sure to do your research and evaluate the pros and cons of different online services as it may concern the security of your data.
Regardless of whether you prefer TikTok or Reels, you can and should still limit the ways they use your information. A quick search of the Internet should give you a quick guide of which settings you should change to be more secure, giving you a greater sense of peace as you scroll through all of those funny videos.