With the change in TikTok ownership, TikTok users in the U.S. are collectively freaking out over the company’s updated privacy policy after being alerted to the changes through an in-app message. The revised document details the U.S. joint venture’s conditions for using its service, including the specific location information it may collect. Many users are also posting to social media about language found in the policy, which says that TikTok could collect sensitive information about its users, including their “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status.”
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“TikTok is required under those laws to notify users in the privacy policy that the sensitive personal information is being collected, how it is being used, and with whom it is being shared,” explains Jennifer Daniels, a partner at the law firm Blank Rome, where she provides counsel on regulatory and general corporate law matters.
Her colleague, Philip Yannella, co-chair of Blank Rome’s Privacy, Security, and Data Protection Practice, points out that TikTok likely decided to include this language in its privacy policy because of litigation concerns. For instance, he says that lately, he has seen several demands under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) from plaintiffs’ lawyers who alleged “the collection of racial, immigration, and ethnic data.”
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"TikTok Users Freak Out over App’s ‘Immigration Status’ Collection — Here’s What It Means," by Sarah Perez was published in TechCrunch on January 23, 2026.