TikTok US Joint Venture Expands Data Collection
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC's updated policy allows processing of citizenship status and precise GPS location for 200 million American users.
Overview
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC updated its privacy policy to permit processing of citizenship or immigration status and precise GPS location for 200 million American users, the joint venture said.
The policy change followed the closing of an investor deal that moved U.S. operations into the new joint venture to comply with a 2024 U.S. law that would have required a ban by Jan. 2025 if ByteDance did not divest, records show.
The joint venture said Oracle will retrain TikTok's content recommendation algorithm in Oracle's U.S. cloud and that precise location collection will be optional and off by default, while TikTok USDS declined to comment on timing.
The revised policy explicitly covers AI interactions, including prompts and generated outputs, and lists 'sensitive personal information' categories such as sexual orientation and citizenship, while ByteDance retains a minority stake just shy of 20% in the joint venture, the company said.
Privacy lawyers said the detailed sensitive-information listing responds to state privacy laws like California's CPRA and could broaden ad targeting, and TikTok has not said when precise GPS collection will be enabled for U.S. accounts.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources frame the TikTok policy as a legal, not malicious, issue — calming alarm by using words like 'freak out' and 'panic', prioritizing legal experts to explain CCPA/CPRA compliance, and structuring the piece to foreground regulatory context while giving limited voice to concerned users or privacy advocates, minimizing suspicion.
Sources (3)
FAQ
The joint venture was established to comply with a U.S. Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025, avoiding a potential ban by ensuring U.S. operations with majority American ownership and national security safeguards.
The policy now permits processing of sensitive personal information like citizenship or immigration status, sexual orientation, and precise GPS location data, which is optional and off by default.
U.S. user data is stored in Oracle's secure U.S. cloud, the content recommendation algorithm is retrained there, and the program follows standards like NIST CSF, ISO 27001, with third-party audits.
The disclosures comply with state privacy laws such as California's CPRA and CCPA, which require companies to notify users about processing sensitive data like citizenship and sexual orientation.
ByteDance retains a minority stake just shy of 20% in the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with majority American ownership and a seven-member board.
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