TikTok's new US joint venture has made changes to its privacy policy that include expanding the type of location data the company can collect from its 200 million American users.
The new policy was published after investors closed a deal with TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance on Thursday to run the popular short-form video app's business in the US.
The new joint venture said in its updated privacy terms that it may now collect precise location data, depending on your settings - a change from the previous policy which allowed for the collection of approximate location data.
TikTok did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment on the change.
The company policy added that the sensitive personal information would be processed in accordance with applicable law and users can turn off location services in their device settings at any time.
Even before the new venture was established, TikTok collected location information based on a user's SIM card or IP address, or both. But it stopped short of collecting even approximate GPS information from American users operating the most updated version of the app, according to a 2024 version of its privacy policy.
Precise location sharing hasn't yet been enabled in the US, where it is expected to be optional and turned off by default so users will be asked to opt in with a pop-up message. TikTok has not said when the update is due to reach American users.
TikTok already collects similar data from users in the UK and Europe as part of a new Nearby Feed feature that lets users find events and businesses near them.
The new American TikTok joint venture is also extending its permissions for gathering information about users interactions with TikTok's artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including prompts and questions submitted by users.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is comprised of three managing investors, including cloud computing giant Oracle, which is investing heavily in AI infrastructure.
Oracle is chaired by Larry Ellison, a Republican megadonor and ally of US President Donald Trump, whose administration helped broker the US TikTok deal.
The agreement follows years of tussling between Washington and Beijing that began in Trump's first presidential term, when he tried unsuccessfully to ban the app over national security concerns.
In 2024, the US passed a law that required the platform to be banned in the US by January 2025 if ByteDance failed to sell its US operations to American investors.
The new joint venture aims to secure user data, apps, and algorithms through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures, with Oracle overseeing the retraining of TikTok's powerful content recommendation algorithm.
ByteDance retains a minority stake in the joint venture, which includes other managing investors such as Silver Lake and Abu-Dhabi state-owned investment fund MGX.
As concerns linger about data security, Representative John Moolenaar questioned ByteDance's influence on TikTok's algorithm and the assurance of data security.
