A new joint venture between TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance and American investors has sparked concerns over user data privacy. The updated privacy policy allows the venture to collect precise location data from TikTok’s 200 million US users, a change from the previous policy which only allowed for approximate location tracking.
The joint venture, known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, was formed after investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and an Abu Dhabi state fund closed a deal with ByteDance on Thursday. The venture says the sensitive personal information will be processed “in accordance with applicable law” and users can turn off location services in their device settings.
However, Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, has expressed concerns about ByteDance’s ongoing involvement in TikTok’s US operations. “Does this deal ensure China does not have influence over the algorithm? Can the parties involved assure Americans their data is secure?” he said in a statement.
The new privacy policy also expands the venture’s permissions for gathering information about users’ interactions with TikTok’s artificial intelligence tools, including prompts, questions, and details on when and where AI-generated content was created.
The agreement follows years of tension between Washington and Beijing over TikTok’s operations in the US. In 2024, the US passed a law requiring the platform to be banned by January 2025 if ByteDance failed to sell its US business to American investors. This led to the formation of the new joint venture, which aims to “secure US user data, apps and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures.”
Despite these assurances, the ongoing involvement of ByteDance and the expanded data collection policies have raised concerns among lawmakers and privacy advocates about the security of American users’ information.