This class action brings suit against two related companies—TikTok, Inc. (formerly known as Musical.ly, Inc.) and ByteDance, Inc.—claiming that they “surreptitiously intercept[] the private electronic communications of users of Tiktok’s social media application” through the use of an in-app browser. The complaint claims that the browser tracks users’ actions and communications at third-party websites, without their consent, and thereby violates the Federal Wiretap Act.
The class for this action is all persons in the US who used TikTok’s in-app browser to visit websites outside the TikTok app.
Musical.ly was an app that allowed users to make and edit videos of themselves. Beijing ByteDance created a version for China called Douyin. The complaint alleges that it also created the TikTok app for use outside of China, then bought Musical.ly and merged it with TikTok.
The complaint claims that the TikTok app has been downloaded more than 2 billion times around the world and has more than 100 million monthly active users in the US.
Quoting a 2017 article in The Economist, the complaint notes that the “world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” The complaint alleges that “the ability to obtain and utilize customer data to shape products, solutions, and the buying experience is critically important to a business’s success.”
TikTok benefits financially, the complaint claims, by gathering and using personal information gathered from those who use its app to enable targeted advertising. “Using highly invasive and secretive practices,” the complaint claims, TikTok and ByteDance “have unlawfully collected private personal information about TikTok’s users that [the companies] then monetize through advertising.”
How does TikTok collect this data? The complaint alleges that when users click links while using the TikTok app, they are taken to these other websites not by their usual browser but by an internal TikTok browser.
The complaint claims, “TikTok’s in-app browser was specifically designed to insert JavaScript code into any third-party website that users access while using the in-app browser. The inserted JavaScript code, in turn, intercepts, records, and copies all Website Communications made by the user while interacting with the third-party website…” This includes registering all clicks, keystrokes, and mouse movements the user makes and recording information the user enters into the website’s forms, including financial or medical information.
This collection of information may be more concerning because of the companies’ ultimate ownership by Chinese companies and the requirement that those companies cooperate with the intelligence aims of the Chinese Communist Party.
In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Musical.ly for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) because of its collection of information from children under the age of 13. Musical.ly had to pay a $5.7 million penalty, but the complaint alleges that Musical.ly’s and TikTok’s compliance with the FTC’s stipulation has been questioned.
The complaint quotes an FTC report as saying that social media companies’ “constant access” to users’ devices lets them “monitor where users go, the people with whom they interact, and what they are doing.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Privacy
Most Recent Case Event
TikTok Wiretapping of Users Through In-App Browser Complaint
January 13, 2023
This class action brings suit against two related companies—TikTok, Inc. (formerly known as Musical.ly, Inc.) and ByteDance, Inc.—claiming that they “surreptitiously intercept[] the private electronic communications of users of Tiktok’s social media application” through the use of an in-app browser. The complaint claims that the browser tracks users’ actions and communications at third-party websites, without their consent, and thereby violates the Federal Wiretap Act.
TikTok Wiretapping of Users Through In-App Browser ComplaintCase Event History
TikTok Wiretapping of Users Through In-App Browser Complaint
January 13, 2023
This class action brings suit against two related companies—TikTok, Inc. (formerly known as Musical.ly, Inc.) and ByteDance, Inc.—claiming that they “surreptitiously intercept[] the private electronic communications of users of Tiktok’s social media application” through the use of an in-app browser. The complaint claims that the browser tracks users’ actions and communications at third-party websites, without their consent, and thereby violates the Federal Wiretap Act.
TikTok Wiretapping of Users Through In-App Browser Complaint