EPISODE 97 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: PRIVACY PLEASE! WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH TIKTOK, CONSENT AND CHINA

Sonya:
It's been a big couple of weeks in the social media space when it comes to the issue of privacy. From the Melbourne woman who didn't consent to being filmed and misrepresented in the interest of click-bait content, to the uproar over TikTok's admission that third party trackers have access to personal data through the platform. It's got me thinking about privacy online and how we navigate it. So why are platforms like TikTok gathering your data? How are they using it, and should you be worried? And when it comes to being the subject of video content, what are the rules when it comes to consent? In this episode, I'm going to take you through all of these questions, plus a few more you may have not even considered yet.

Sonya:
Welcome to the Boom Your Biz podcast, a podcast for the movers, the shakers, and even bigger action-takers in business. I'm your host, Sonya McIntyre-Reid, and each week I'll be exploring the question of what really makes businesses and organizations thrive. I'm on a mission to educate, empower, and inspire business owners and myself along the way.

Sonya:
Since the dawn of the internet, users have been split into two camps. The Big Brother is watching, protect yourself online at all costs group, and the hey, they're going to get information one way or another, what do I have to hide group. I must say, I am in the latter. And so, it wasn't until I heard this conversation on Hack the other night about TikTok, that it actually got me a little bit concerned. As in many things in life, the truth of the matter probably lies somewhere in the middle. And as of many things on the internet, what is and isn't best practice is highly subjective. Take viral TikTok videos for example. We've all seen those videos. The one where an influencer does a good deed for a stranger, and just so happens to be filming this selfless act to share with their hundreds of thousands of followers.

Sonya:
In my opinion, this kind of content is unimaginative, clout-chasing, and disingenuous. If someone really wanted to do a good deed for a stranger, why broadcast it to the world? Also, what if that stranger doesn't want to be seen by hundreds of thousands of people? What if the story presented by the content creator isn't actually the real story? This is exactly what happened to a Melbourne woman earlier this month, when a teenager filmed her without her consent and the video went viral. If you haven't seen TikTokker Harrison Pawluk's video, which has over 58 million views, here's a brief recap. In the video, he approaches an older woman sitting alone in a Melbourne food court and asks her to hold a bouquet of flowers for him for a second. When she appears to admire the flowers, he rummages through his bag, then he tells her to have a nice day and walks away. Leaving her with the flowers and a confused expression on her face.

Sonya:
This video is captioned, I hope this made her day better, with the hashtag wholesome. Sounds pretty harmless, right? He's just trying to brighten an old lady's day. Well, that's his side of the story. The woman in the video was interviewed by the ABC, and her side of the story is a bit different. She told Harrison that she didn't want the flowers. Didn't give consent to be filmed. Asked if she'd been filmed, and was told no. And was essentially turned into a viral sob story without her consent. "He interrupted my time, filmed and uploaded a video without my consent, turning it into something it wasn't. And I feel like he's making quite a lot of money through it," she said. Marie said seeing herself turned into a pitiful, lonely old woman was frustrating. "It's a patronizing assumption that women, especially older women, will be thrilled by some random stranger giving them flowers," she said.

Sonya:
To be fair, I think Marie has a point. I wouldn't want a stranger doing this to me, no matter how pretty the flowers were or how good a hair day I was having. And unfortunately, Marie doesn't have the same platform to be able to share her side of the story, should she wish. This story got me thinking, what are the rules when it comes to filming people without their consent? According to Barbara McDonald, a professor at the University of Sydney Law School, there are currently no laws in place against filming another person in public. You only really have a legal leg to stand on if that video is considered defamatory or can be deemed as commercial. As public spaces are, well, public spaces. The most you can do is request the creator to take the video down, or try your luck with reporting the post to the platform administrators.

Sonya:
So while these heavily orchestrated random acts of kindness can be annoying, sadly, they're not illegal. The situation that's going on with TikTok, however, concerns the privacy of every user, not just an unlucky few. And it's entered some pretty murky territory. A study published last month found that YouTube and TikTok tracks users personal data at a higher rate than any other social media app out there. This just blew my mind. I really thought that Facebook had more data on us than YouTube or TikTok. And you've got to remember guys, YouTube is owned by Google. So they're also pulling in all of that Google Maps data, your Google Search history, all of that as well. I'm talking about your location, your contacts, and even your calendar. And while you do have the option to opt out of sharing your data with TikTok, if you spend any amount of time on the app, you'll know that you get hassled with notifications until you give in.

Sonya:
The study I mentioned earlier found that YouTube, which as I just mentioned is owned by Google, mostly collects your personal data for its own purposes. If you've ever watched a YouTube video on a topic, only to see the ads for products associated with that topic advertised everywhere you go online for weeks afterwards, you'll know what I mean. And I must say, we're not totally innocent in this. Our agency does this for a living, and it's a very, very effective way of advertising. Similarly, if your location can also allow ads to be targeted to the town or city you're in at the time, regardless of where you usually live. Seems pretty harmless though, right? Well, maybe not, but it certainly seems harmless in comparison to what many suggest TikTok are doing.

Sonya:
First, a bit of background. TikTok is owned by a Chinese tech giant, ByteDance, and mostly allows third party trackers to collect your data. That's right, third party trackers. Do we know what these third party trackers are? No. Also, do we know what happens with your personal information once these third parties have it? Also, no. And this is why people are getting upset. These third party trackers are carrying out what is known as data mapping. Data mapping basically provides a fairly accurate snapshot of what's on your phone, from the platforms and people you interact with, to your physical location and any other personal information you share with the app, if you don't opt out in the settings when you sign up. Third parties can even track your activity on other sites when you leave the app. Now this is way more information than any other app requires in order to run on your device. So it's pretty safe to deduce that they're on a mission to gather as much of your personal data as humanly possible.

Sonya:
So my questions are, what are they doing with this data? And is this creepy or is it just the cost of being involved on the platform? If you've been on the internet since it became freely available, like many of my listeners, you may have resigned yourself to the idea that there's a lot more of your personal information out there than you'd care to admit. But let's take a step back and look at TikTok. Who's their target demographic? Teenagers and those in their early 20s. This is where it starts to get a little worrying. TikTok's intended audience are generally not well-established in their careers yet, but as they grow their careers and their wealth, building networks and social capital, this information is going to become incredibly valuable.

Sonya:
By making information sharing the default setting on an app and making it difficult to restrict the information you do share, what's happening is a whole generation is becoming more lax with their privacy. And while those content creators are teenagers now, sure. Some TikTok users may end up working in jobs where they're dealing with highly sensitive information. Information that could be useful to, I don't know, another foreign government. Of course, when you don't know which users intend to follow a particular career path, the simple solution is just to keep tabs on everybody. Scary? Yes. Unlikely? I mean, you'd hope so, but at this stage, only time will tell. The point I want to make here is that your privacy settings aren't one and done. Every time you update an app, it's important to go back into your settings and make sure that the update doesn't restore the platform preferred privacy settings automatically.

Sonya:
So just on that note, if you, for example, are plugging in your iPhone at nighttime and you're connected to wifi, a lot of your apps are going to automatically update, so you're not even going to know when this happens. So it's best just to jump in and check regularly. Another reason you need to be vigilant and understand what you're signing up for is this. If you have passwords on your clipboard or in your notes app, that information can be accessed by the app. And honestly, I was in a position where I really thought, "Oh, well, I don't care. Every other app has all this data on me, I've got nothing to hide." Until I learned about the password side of things. Trust me, if you've ever been hacked, you know what a pain it is to try and get your money or your social media accounts back. Identity theft is no joke.

Sonya:
So, how do you protect your data if you don't want to delete TikTok? Because I get it, it is addictive. First and foremost, if you're concerned about how your data is collected and used, you're going to have to read and understand TikTok's terms and conditions before you accept them. We're all guilty of it, we just click, I accept, without reading the Ts and CS, then panicking when a post goes viral listing all of the things that you blindly agreed to. If it's too late, your next step is to check the permissions the app is currently running on your device. Go to settings and scroll down to the app you want to limit certain access to. You'll see a list of things like location, contacts, microphone, camera, and photos. Here you can choose if your location is never shared, shared while only using the app, or requires the app to ask what you want it to do next time you open it. Here, you can also toggle between a precise location or a general area.

Sonya:
My advice, think about what the app does and whether it would need certain permissions. Does a game really need access to your contacts or messages? I think not. Here are the data points that TikTok is currently collecting. Camera and gallery photos, location, contacts, microphone, storage, network, and other permissions. Other permissions are for the functions like preventing your device from sleeping, installing/uninstalling shortcuts, requesting install packages, reading badge notifications, collecting device information, and a few others. TikTok can also get data from other social media accounts if users give them access.

Sonya:
And here are a couple of ways you can stay safe. Number one, enable two-factor authentication. Two-FA, as it's known as, prevents hackers from gaining access to your account. Enabling it ensures your identity is verified by TikTok twice before you have access. Just a quick note here, the social media guru over here, myself, I decided to delete my social media apps before I went on a health retreat a few weeks back. And it's really a good idea to not only write down your current usernames and passwords before you do this, but maybe switch off two-factor authentication before you delete the apps. It's been almost a month now and I still can't get into my Facebook or Instagram accounts, because they require me to authenticate myself from inside the app. Makes sense, right?

Sonya:
Number two, take advantage of TikTok's privacy and safety settings. If you're under 13, your account will automatically be private. If you're over 13, this is something you can do manually in settings. Please note, even with a private account, your profile information is available for all TikTok users to see, even if it's just friends and subscribers who can actually see your videos. To change your account to private, go to settings and privacy, select privacy and safety, then change the private account option. In the same menu, you can also remove the option for TikTok to recommend your profile. The privacy and safety menu allows you to block people, filter keywords, and also manage who you can view, like, comment, make duets and download your videos. So for this kind of thing, I wouldn't recommend restricting all of this if you are a business or a brand account. If you are using TikTok for personal reasons, then yes, absolutely limit these.

Sonya:
Number three is the permissions and managing those. Look through the permissions that TikTok has and remove any you feel are unnecessary. Ask yourself, does the app really need this permission to do what it needs to do? If the answer is no, then toggle it off. You can always toggle it back on if it's restricted some feature on the app, down the line. And number four, if you're a parent, this is an important one. Enable family pairing. Family pairing is a setting that allows parents to monitor their children's accounts and keep them safe. If you have teenagers or young kids that are just getting onto the app, this is a really good idea.

Sonya:
So, while we may not yet fully understand why our data has been collected at such speed and scope, and we may not be able to do anything about influencers filming us in the wild, there are still things we can do to protect ourselves online. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic, though. Is data collection scary, or just the price you pay to play on TikTok? And I'm curious, have any of you ever been filmed without your consent in a public place? As always, you can join the conversation over on the Boom Your Biz Facebook group. The link is in the show notes, or just search for Boom Your Biz in Groups. And if you're finding these podcasts useful, we would love it if you could leave a five star review to help us reach even more people.