01/24/2026
This makes Chinese-era data practices "look like a joke". Everyone Should Be Concerned.
The new TikTok Terms of Service (effective January 22, 2026) for U.S. users are now operated by TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a new entity with majority U.S./non-Chinese ownership (~80.1%) and ByteDance (China) retaining a minority stake (~19.9%). Key investors include Oracle (Larry Ellison), Silver Lake, MGX (Abu Dhabi/UAE-linked), and others like affiliates of Michael Dell. Some reports highlight pro-Israel ties among certain investors (e.g., Ellison's donations to Friends of the IDF, Oracle's past Israel collaborations), leading to speculation about content moderation biases, especially on topics like Palestine/Gaza.
The updated Privacy Policy (also effective Jan 22, 2026) does expand data practices, which some users find more invasive than before:
Precise location â Collected if you enable location services (previously more limited or conditional in some versions).
Inferences and sensitive info â TikTok may infer or collect details like demographics, interests, racial/ethnic origin, health, sexual orientation (under state laws like CCPA), and even immigration/citizenship-related data if provided or inferred from activity/profiles.
Broader ad targeting â Uses user data + third-party sources for customized ads on TikTok and off-platform (more sweeping language than prior policies).
AI/ML training â Data (including inputs/outputs from generative AI features) can train models.
Sharing â With affiliates (including global ones like TT Commerce & Global Services for e-commerce/ads), service providers, advertisers, and for legal/government compliance (e.g., under U.S. laws or Executive Order 14352). International transfers possible, but with safeguards.
Excerpts from the official documents (TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC's Terms & Privacy Policy):
From Privacy Policy (data collection/uses):
"We collect... precise geolocation information if you enable location services... information that allows us to infer characteristics such as age range, gender, interests... sensitive personal information (e.g., racial or ethnic origin, health data, sexual orientation) where permitted or required under applicable law."
From Terms (AI and licenses):
"Output you generate may be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, objectionable, inappropriate, unlawful... You grant us a license to use Your Input and Output to operate, improve, and provide the Platform, including training machine learning models."
From Terms (ads/experience):
"We customize... ads and other sponsored content... based on... information we receive from third parties."
Compared to pre-2026 versions under full ByteDance control, the new setup shifts data storage/security to U.S.-based (e.g., Oracle cloud), aims to cut direct Chinese access to U.S. user data/algorithm, and retrains the algorithm on U.S. data only. Critics argue this makes U.S. government/law enforcement access easier (via subpoenas, etc.), and investor ties raise censorship fears on certain topicsâwhile Chinese collection risks (spying/influence) were the original ban driver.
Whether this makes Chinese-era data practices "look like a joke" is subjective: ByteDance faced accusations of potential forced sharing with Beijing, but the new entity emphasizes U.S. compliance and safeguards. Many see expanded tracking/ads as trade-offs for avoiding a ban.