TikTok’s newly formed US joint venture has implemented significant revisions to its privacy policy, substantially expanding the scope of location data collection from its 200 million American users. The policy update follows Thursday’s finalized investment deal between TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance and a consortium of American investors, establishing a new operational framework for the popular short-form video platform in the United States.
The updated privacy terms now permit the collection of ‘precise location data, depending on your settings’—a notable departure from the previous policy that only authorized the gathering of ‘approximate’ location information. While TikTok remained unavailable for immediate commentary regarding these changes, the company’s policy documentation emphasizes that sensitive personal information will be processed ‘in accordance with applicable law’ and that users retain the ability to disable location services through their device settings at any time.
Historically, TikTok gathered location data through user SIM cards and IP addresses even before the joint venture’s establishment. However, the platform had refrained from collecting GPS information—even approximate data—from American users operating the most current application version, according to its 2024 privacy policy.
The restructured entity has also broadened its permissions regarding user interactions with TikTok’s artificial intelligence tools. The enhanced data collection now encompasses user-submitted prompts and queries, along with comprehensive metadata detailing how, when, and where AI-generated content was initiated or produced.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC comprises three principal investors, including cloud computing behemoth Oracle, which is making substantial investments in AI infrastructure despite accruing significant debt to finance its ambitions in this rapidly expanding sector. Oracle, chaired by Republican megadonor and longtime Trump ally Larry Ellison, played a pivotal role in the negotiations that culminated in this arrangement.
This agreement concludes years of diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing that originated during President Trump’s first term, when his administration attempted—unsuccessfully—to ban the application over national security apprehensions. The 2024 legislation mandating ByteDance’s divestiture of US operations by January 2025 prompted repeated enforcement delays until this week’s finalized joint venture.
The newly established entity asserts its primary objective is ‘to secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures.’ Oracle will supervise the retraining of TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm using existing American user data, with the algorithm subsequently secured within Oracle’s US cloud environment. ByteDance maintains a minority stake of approximately 20% in the venture.
Additional managing partners include US technology investment firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s state-owned investment fund MGX, which has previously conducted business with the Trump family’s cryptocurrency enterprise, World Liberty Financial.
On Friday, House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) voiced concerns regarding ByteDance’s continued involvement, questioning whether the arrangement adequately prevents Chinese influence over the algorithm and ensures American data security—issues he emphasized would require thorough congressional oversight.