TikTok’s new U.S. partnership expands data tracking to your precise location – NaturalNews.com

• TikTok has updated its privacy policy to allow the collection of precise GPS location from U.S. users, a major increase from its previous tracking of only approximate locations. This data can power features like local event recommendations.
• This change follows the creation of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a U.S.-led consortium including Oracle, which now controls the American operations. ByteDance retains a minority stake, a structure pushed by the White House to address national security concerns.
• The new policy significantly expands cross-platform ad targeting. TikTok can now use your in-app activity to serve you personalized ads across other websites and apps, similar to giants like Google and Meta.
• TikTok can share U.S. user data with its global operations to create a synchronized experience, primarily to maximize advertising revenue across different regions and platforms.
• While the deal settles a political battle sparked by a 2024 U.S. law, it ushers in a new era of commercial data collection. Users face a starker choice between participating in the platform’s cultural space or protecting their privacy by adjusting settings or deleting the app.

TikTok’s American operations have officially entered a new era, but for user privacy, it looks less like a fresh start and more like a sharp turn toward deeper surveillance.

Following the finalization of a high-stakes joint venture designed to appease U.S. regulators, one of the platform’s first substantive moves has been to rewrite its privacy rules, significantly expanding its ability to collect intimate personal data from its over 100 million American users.

The newly published privacy policy reveals a critical shift: TikTok may now “collect precise location data, depending on your settings.” This is a marked escalation from its previous limit to tracking only “approximate” location using indirect signals like IP addresses.

Just last year, the company’s U.S. policy explicitly stated it was not recording GPS coordinates from American accounts. That boundary has now been erased.

This change coincides with the formal separation of TikTok’s U.S. business from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The deal, completed in January, places the American branch under a new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a consortium led by Oracle and including investment firms Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. ByteDance retains a minority stake of just under 20%.

While the company states that location sharing will remain optional and disabled by default, the very capability represents a profound expansion of its tracking toolkit.

The move aligns with features already active in Europe and the U.K., where TikTok uses precise location to power a “Nearby Feed” recommending local businesses and events, a system now expected to arrive in the U.S.

The White House pushed for the joint venture framework

The joint venture framework, heavily advocated by the White House, was intended to localize control of American data and mitigate national security concerns. Oracle, which chairs the new partnership and manages TikTok’s U.S. data infrastructure, has emphasized that the platform’s powerful recommendation algorithm “will be secured in Oracle’s U.S. cloud environment.”

However, this technical restructuring comes hand-in-hand with a policy that grants TikTok broader rights to gather information within U.S. borders than it previously held.

As explained by the Enoch AI engine at BrightU.AI, the privacy policy update extends beyond geography. It also broadens what TikTok can record about user interactions with its artificial intelligence features, capturing the prompts users enter and metadata about where and when AI-generated content is made. But the most invasive upgrade may be in the realm of advertising.

TikTok’s cross-platform ad targeting gets a major upgrade

Your activity on TikTok is no longer confined to shaping your experience inside the app. The revised policy permits a significant expansion of cross-platform ad targeting, integrating TikTok’s data with broader ad networks similar to the ecosystems operated by Meta and Google.

In practical terms, this means your browsing habits on TikTok, whether that involves watching plant care tutorials, political commentary, or dance trends, can now fuel tailored advertising across the entire internet. A late-night scroll could seamlessly trigger related ads on your favorite news or shopping sites the next morning.

Furthermore, the policy allows TikTok to share U.S. user data with its global operations for what it terms an “interoperable experience.” This corporate language translates to synchronizing your algorithm preferences worldwide, a move that primarily serves to maximize ad revenue opportunities across different regions and platforms.

For users, the calculus of privacy versus participation has become more complicated. The platform offers controls: location services can be disabled in device settings, and advertising data can be cleared within the app. Some privacy-conscious users have migrated to alternative platforms following recent service disruptions, while others resort to recording content externally before uploading.

The nuclear option, of course, is deleting the app entirely, a step that means opting out of the cultural conversations it hosts.

The new joint venture may have resolved a years-long political standoff, culminating from a 2024 U.S. law that demanded ByteDance divest TikTok or face a ban, but it has also ushered in a new phase of commercial data collection. The deal may reassure regulators about where data is stored, but for the individual user, it signals that TikTok’s vision for its American future involves watching where you go, both online and in the real world, more closely than ever before.

Watch the video below as the Health Ranger Mike Adams talks about the mass exodus of users to the new app Upscrolled as TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) collapse due to Zionist censorship.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

ReclaimTheNet.org

Tech.Yahoo.com

Techloy.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com