Tik Tok Beware
Tik Tok is a growing social media website. Tik Tok is known for sharing videos, creating video clips, lip-sync videos, and comedy videos. Tik Tok is also a website where you can share your social media as well. For example, Instagram and Youtube. Tik Tok is owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company founded in 2012. While Tik Tok has been drastically growing, the wonder of personal information being taken from the Beijing company has been growing as well. With that being said, do we know what Tik Tok is and what's behind it?
People Magazine states, "The popular video app TikTok has been hit with a lawsuit claiming it stole user information without knowledge or consent, then transferred the data to Chinese servers" (Desantis 1). In today's industry, everything is starting to become online. For example, shopping. Therefore companies have switched over to online shopping and advertising. Thus this is the number one reason why Tik Tok is being accused of stealing users' data so that it can target users with advertisements that spark their interest. While Tik Tok is not the only social media platform that does this, it is a problem because they are a foreign site so the possibility of Tik Tok stealing other information is there.
Another issue towards the popular Tik Tok app is how the United States military has banned the app from all government-issued mobile devices. New York Times states, “In Dec. Sixteen messages to the various military branches, the Pentagon said there was a “potential risk associated with using the Tik Tok app,” and advised employees to take several precautions to safeguard their personal information” (Vigdor 1). Although this may seem extreme, it is a safety procession to protect all private military information.
While this debate is still in the air, below are some tips to keep your social media safe.
Know the people you friend/follow
Create strong passwords
Do not give any credit card/debit card number to websites
Keep your phone number private
Change your passwords once a month
Do not click spam links/websites
Always log out when you are done