TikTok and other Chinese social media platforms are now planning to display user locations without people's consent. What makes this privacy issue worse is that the personal info display is impossible to disable.
A man surfs the internet in Beijing on June 15, 2009. The designers of controversial Internet filtering software that China has ordered shipped with all new computers said they were trying to fix security glitches in the programme in the latest blow to the plan to include the filtering software with all PCs sold in China from July 1.
This sudden change is quite unusual since the Asian country's central government doesn't require platforms to track the real locations of their users.
This has been the situation in China in the past few years - even when the Chinese government has been increasing the regulatory oversight on the internet.
TikTok, Other Chinese SocMed Platforms To Display User Address?
According to the South China Morning Post's latest report, the Chinese internet watchdog, CAC (Cyberspace Administration of China), announced that 2022 would be the year that the online platforms will be cleaned up from rumors and other unproven content.
In this photo illustration, a mobile phone can be seen displaying the logos for Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok in front of a monitor showing the flags of the United States and China on an internet page, on September 22, 2020 in Beijing, China. Both popular Chinese-owned apps are facing bans under an executive order signed by United States President Donald Trump.
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Although the user location display is still not mandated by the government, various social media companies decided to make their own move. ByteDance, the owner of Tiktok, said that its news aggregator, Jinri Toutiao, will soon track the location of the users.
Aside from ByteDance, other companies, such as Douyin (owner of Kuaishou, TikTok's video platform rival), and the lifestyle community site called Xiaohongsu, announced that they will be the same.
Displaying user locations is not really new in China. Recently, Weibo also did the same thing, offering the addresses of the individuals who share fake news.
Should You Be Alarmed?
Although many Chinese social media sites announced that they would display user locations even without consent, they clarified that the province address would be shown.
If you are in other countries, only the region or country you are located in will be displayed. This means that your exact address will not be tracked.
How To Geek also explained that IP addresses will not show the exact physical address of the users.
Meanwhile, four new TikTok features were recently released.
Previously, some users shared disappointments regarding the new TikTok profile history views feature.
For more news updates about TikTok and other social media platforms, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
