TikTok data privacy issues prompt need for social media plan

The questions U.S. lawmakers have about TikTok’s data privacy practices might prompt companies to rethink how their firms function on the platform.

TikTok has greater than 1 billion customers, a forty five% enhance from its 689 million customers in 2020, in response to Statista. Companies are more and more becoming a member of the favored social media platform to succeed in new, youthful audiences.
“Organizations are turning to in style social media functions like TikTok for promoting functions,” stated Demetrice Rogers, adjunct professor within the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement.
Yet TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has come underneath fireplace in Congress for its questionable data assortment practices. Despite repeated reassurances throughout hearings that TikTok doesn’t acquire and share U.S. consumer data with China, leaked audio from TikTok inner conferences revealed that ByteDance’s China-based workers recurrently accessed U.S. data.
In July, Senate Intelligence Committee members requested Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan to analyze TikTok for letting Chinese workers entry U.S. consumer data. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight and Energy and Commerce Committees despatched a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew requesting paperwork and communications demonstrating the connection between TikTok and ByteDance, in addition to their data sharing, entry and storage practices.
If it’s true that ByteDance is sharing U.S. buyer data with the Chinese authorities, “not solely did TikTok misrepresent or present false testimony about its data administration and safety practices, but it surely has positioned the security and privacy of tens of millions of U.S. residents in jeopardy,” the committee wrote.
In mild of the data privacy considerations levied at TikTok, specialists warning firms ought to consider carefully about their social media technique earlier than connecting to platforms that would probably have an effect on data privacy.

Preparing a social media technique
Before becoming a member of a social media platform, Tulane University’s Rogers stated an organization ought to contemplate potential privacy issues when promoting on a platform like TikTok and “absolutely perceive the data use coverage of TikTok.”
“While the group might prosper by using the platform for promoting, customers might view the corporate negatively primarily based on their use of tailor-made ads,” he stated.
An organization’s social media use, together with social media advertising, needs to be a part of its total digital innovation and data methods, in response to Dominque Shelton Leipzig, a associate at Mayer Brown and a member of the cybersecurity and data privacy apply. She additionally serves because the lead for world data innovation and advert tech privacy and data administration.

It is crucial for company management to incorporate digital advertising of their oversight position.

Dominque Shelton Leipzigpartner, member of the cybersecurity and data privacy apply, Mayer Brown

Shelton Leipzig stated some questions company officers and administrators might ask chief advertising officers usually about social media use embody, “Are we speaking model, worth and belief?”, “Will our efforts exhibit accountable data stewardship?” and “Have we vetted the kinds of advertisements that may seem subsequent to context we submit?”
“It is crucial for company management to incorporate digital advertising of their oversight position,” she stated. “The kinds of issues for company leaders to think about in relation to use of platforms is how the corporate’s digital footprint jibes with its total popularity for accountable data stewardship and belief.”
Makenzie Holland is a information author overlaying huge tech and federal regulation. Prior to becoming a member of TechTarget, she was a basic reporter for the Wilmington StarNews and against the law and training reporter on the Wabash Plain Dealer.

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