Younger audience
Privacy Highlights for Teens
When you use TikTok, we collect information about you. We’ve produced this page to highlight what that information is and how we use it.
We’ve also made some videos to explain things in more detail and to share some examples of how we use your information. For full details, take a look at our Privacy Policy.
Remember, you must be at least 13 to use TikTok. If you’re under 18, you should speak to your parent or guardian before you start using TikTok.
The information we collect
We may collect the following information about you
- Information you give us. This includes the details you provide if you create an account, post a video, sound or comment, or take part in a survey.
- Information we collect about how you use TikTok. This includes details of the videos and ads you watch, the accounts you follow, and how long you spend on TikTok.
- Information we collect from your device. This includes the type of device you’re using (for example, your phone or tablet), the country you’re in, and the unique identification numbers belonging to your device.
- Information we predict about you based on how you use TikTok. This could be the age group you are in and what we think your interests may be.
- Information others give us. This may be from other people on TikTok, social network providers (such as Facebook or Google) and advertisers.
The information we collect
How we use your information
How we use your information
We only use the information we have about you in ways the law allows. This means we must have a valid reason to justify using your information.
By law, there are six valid reasons. The three most common reasons used by TikTok are:
- to perform a contract
- legitimate interest
- consent
To perform a contract
When you download the TikTok app or create an account, you enter into a contract with us. Under that contract, you and we agree to do, and not do, certain things. We need to use your information to be able to do some of the things we agree to do. If we didn’t use your information, we wouldn’t be able to provide you with the full TikTok experience. For example, we could not provide the For You feed, which is tailored to each user.
Your information and your For You feed
Your information and our Community Guidelines
Legitimate interest
The law allows us to use your information if it’s necessary for a legitimate interest (basically, if we ‘re using your information for a good reason that isn’t outweighed by any negative impact on your rights). To give an example, there’s a legitimate interest in using your information to protect the safety and well-being of our community. This could include reviewing the things you do on TikTok to make sure they don’t go against our Community Guidelines.
Consent
We can use your information if you’ve given us your ‘consent’, which is a specific type of legal permission. If we ask for your consent, we’ll:
- make sure you understand why we’re asking for it;
- be clear about what will happen if you give us your consent; and
- let you know how you can change your mind later
Your information and other organisations
When we share your information with other companies and organisations
We may share some of your information with other companies and organisations.
- We share some information with other companies that provide us with a service. These companies do things like provide a safe place for us to store your information, and let you pay for things on TikTok.
- We share some information with other platforms and apps, but only if you ask us to. For example, if you use our “share to” feature to post your TikTok videos on another platform, we share some information with that other platform so you can do this.
- We share some information with advertisers and the companies that support them.This is so they can understand how effective their ads are on TikTok (for example, how many people saw, liked, commented on or shared their ads, or visited their website). We only share your personal information with advertisers if you give us permission.
- We may also share some information about you with the police, emergency services or public authorities.We do this if we have to by law or in exceptional circumstances, such as if we suspect a crime or that someone is at serious risk of harm.
Your rights over your information
Laws in Europe give you rights over your information. We’ve explained these rights, and how you can exercise them, in our Privacy Policy.
We’ve also created tools and settings you can use to control your information and privacy. We’re always looking at ways to improve, so these tools and settings may change over time. Stay up to date by looking at your [Settings and Privacy dashboard] (accessible from your Me page) and by checking out the Help and Safety Centres.
Our tools and settings allow you to do the following.
- Control who can watch and comment on your videos
- Control who can follow your account and send you direct messages
- Control whether the ads you see are personalised to you
- Take charge of how much time you want to spend on TikTok
- Download information
- Delete your videos, comments and account at any time
Controlling your information
TikTok for teens
TikTok for teens
You need to be at least 13 to use TikTok. If you’re under 18, you might notice that some of TikTok’s features aren’t available to you or that you can’t change some of your settings. This is because we want you to use TikTok in a way that is enjoyable, safe and appropriate to your age.
For example, if you’re under 16, your account is set to private by default. If you are 16 or 17, you can choose between a private or public account when setting up your account; if you don’t make a choice, your account is set to private by default.
If you have a private account, only people you approve can follow you, view your videos, LIVE videos, bio, likes as well as your following and followers lists.
If you have a public account, your profile and videos will be visible to, and can be shared by, anyone on or off TikTok (whether or not they have a TikTok account) and may appear in search engines, blogs, social media posts and news sites.
Remember, whether your account is private or public, your name, username, and profile photo will always be visible to anyone on or off TikTok. Regardless of your account type, you can always restrict the visibility of your posts individually, in which case your posts will be limited to the audience you select. See here how to change your video settings.
Check out our Youth Portal for all the information you need to have the best possible experience of TikTok.
And if you’re the parent of a TikTok user under 18, take a look at our Guardian’s Guide for information and resources to help you understand TikTok and the tools and controls you and your teenager can turn on, like our Family Pairing feature.
Want to know more?
We hope these Privacy Highlights have answered some of the questions you may have had about how we use your information. For more details, check out our Help Centre, Safety Centre; Transparency Centre and read our Privacy Policy. If you have a question, you can contact us using the details in the Privacy Policy or fill in our online form.