Should you delete TikTok from your phone? | Chris Stokel-Walker

The app is treated as suspect because of its Chinese ownership. But the way it gathers data is no different from other tech giants

It's a tough time to be a TikToker. The video-sharing platform owned by the Chinese technology giant ByteDance has been censured in India, accused of spying" by the president of the United States, and has provoked the ire of former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith in the UK. Listen to the prognostications of some politicians or visit certain corners of the internet and you'd think TikTok was a deep-state plot to capture your data so it can be mined by Chinese spies.

The truth is more complicated. We happily hand over just as much data to plenty of other apps, including many based in Silicon Valley, and much of the same data we produce when using apps such as TikTok is also posted on YouTube and shared through Facebook. If we're worried about Chinese snooping, then it's worth remembering the revelations first aired seven years ago about the US National Security Agency eavesdropping on all our communications. While TikTok may have been described as a data-collection service", the same could also be said of Facebook or any other popular social media platform.