I’ve been reading that more and more members of Congress are considering banning TikTok in the United States. I am not a consistent user of TikTok, but I think the outrage at the app’s data collection is being misdirected.
Instead of banning an app because a foreign country is using it for data collection, I believe we should focus on our own laws and fight to prevent rampant data collection from any app, by any company. A person’s data should be their own property, and they should decide who gets access to it. I believe it’s foolish to target a single app because it’s owned by a foreign company.
Meta, Amazon, Apple, Google all collect data from their users. They’re doing the exact same thing that TikTok is doing, and if it’s wrong for one company it should be wrong for others. Just because they are American based companies doesn’t mean that data can’t eventually fall into foreign hands and pose a national security threat. We should fight for laws that protect against data collection by any company. Users should have to opt-in to any data collection. And companies should be required to clearly state why and how they plan to use that data and to whom it’s sold.
Instead of focusing on the problems a foreign company could create by collecting our data I believe we should focus on the act of data collection itself. And if we ban one app for their data collection, we should ban all apps for their data collection. American citizens should have a right to digital privacy.
