Let’s cut to the chase. We know you don’t read those privacy policies you sign. While the simple act of checking that little box may seem harmless, companies often slip questionable agreements into privacy policies, putting your online safety at risk. Just by scribbling in a couple of words underneath a subheading buried 56 pages deep, a company can suddenly sell your biometric data to third-parties that you’ve never even heard of.
Don’t think these clauses actually exist? Maybe you just haven’t taken the time to find them.
Instructions
On the next page, you will be greeted with a small section of a privacy policy to help you get started with this activity. Your mission is to read through it and click on the section of the policy that clearly puts your internet privacy at risk. While this first activity may seem easy, once you have completed it you will then be able to choose between three longer privacy policies to really test your skills!
Practice
Follow the instructions from the previous page. (If you skipped through them... well that just proves our point yet again, no?)
By using our service, you must provide us with a username and password. Usernames and passwords are securely stored on our server. Passwords are hashed with bcrypt using 15 rounds.Also, we'll be tracking your precise location twice a minute and selling that data to third party advertisers. Lastly, you can request your account to be deleted at any time via email.
Now that you know how to go through a paragraph, let's try a more realistic privacy policy.
Choose a Policy
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6 Page Policy
Important Privacy Policy
We collect information contained in the messages you send through our Platform and, if you grant us access, information from your phone book on your mobile device. More information about the categories and sources of information is provided below.
Information we collect automatically
We automatically collect certain information from you when you use the Platform, including internet or other network activity information such as your IP address and Cookies (as defined below).
Usage Information
We collect information regarding your use of the Platform and any other User Content that you generate through or upload to our Platform.
Image and Audio Information
We may collect information about the images and audio that are a part of your User Content, such as the video and audio you upload, the nature of the video and audio, and the text of the words you write in our app. We may collect this information to enable special video effects, for content moderation, for demographic classification, for content and ad recommendations, and for other non-personally-identifying operations. We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content.
Links to Other Sites
Our Service may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that these external sites are not operated by us. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.
That Was Actually an Exerpt From
TikTok’s Privacy Policy!
What Does This Mean?
Even though you may not have realized it, chances are extremely high you’ve signed over this type of information to a corporation at least once; maybe you’ve even signed this company's privacy policy! Not only do corporations often sell this information to third-parties for advertising purposes, but if that corporation is hacked that information can easily fall into the wrong hands. Since these companies and individuals can use this compromised information to hack into services such as your bank account or governmental services it is imperative that you protect it.
What You Can Do?
If you use services on the internet, keeping all of your data out of the hands of companies is next to impossible. As such, the next best thing you can do is ensure that you are aware of what data you are giving out to companies. While you may not have the time to read those privacy policies, there’s still a lot you can do. You can use a password manager to ensure that you don’t reuse passwords for logins, you can click “disallow” when services attempt to gain access to information such as your location, and when signing up for a new website do a quick internet check to see if the service is reputable.
Want to See the Whole Policy?
Scan the QR Code on the right to see TikTok's full-length privacy policy.
