China’s TikTok App Is Collecting Americans’ ‘Biometric’ Data, ‘Faceprints And Voiceprints’

TikTok’s privacy policy was updated to allow the platform to collect your “faceprints and voiceprints.”

TikTok—which is linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—is now collecting new forms of User Content data including audio images, and text. But it is also collecting what it calls “biometric identifiers and biometric information,” which the company claims it is allowed to do “under US laws.”

“We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content. Where required by law, we will seek any required permissions from you prior to any such collection,” reads a new section of TikTok’s policy.

TechCrunch reports that TikTok did not confirm what product developments necessitated the addition of biometric data to its list of disclosures about the information it automatically collects from users, but did say it would ask for consent in the case such data collection practices began.

TikTok did not specify whether “US laws” refer to state or federal laws, which is important because there are only a few U.S. states which have biometric privacy laws in the first place (Illinois, Washington, California, Texas, New York, for example). This is important because, as TechCrunch points out, “If TikTok only requested consent, ‘where required by law,’ it could mean users in other states would not have to be informed about the data collection.”

President Donald Trump had threatened to ban Chinese-owned TikTok, even issuing executive orders to do so, as tensions with China were ratcheted up during the COVID pandemic, stalling trade negotiations between the two nations.

TikTok did not disclose why it’s collecting all of this personal and biometric data, nor how it will be obtaining consent from users to do so.

Chinese scientists have been preparing for a Third World War incorporating biological and genetic weapons—including coronavirus—for the last six years, according to a document obtained by U.S. investigators. Moreover, China’s state-controlled newspaper, The Global Times, recently released an editorial stating Beijing should prepare for a nuclear war with the United States.

Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith.

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