A recently conducted study compared data collection among different social media apps. During the study, it was found that Tiktok and Youtube generally track user data more than any other platform. Youtube is known to collect your search history and even your location to feed you more ‘relevant’ media, while Tiktok allows third-party trackers to access your data. The worry surrounding third-party trackers is the fact that it’s almost impossible to know who has access to your data, and what information they are collecting. The study was conducted by counting how many different domains tracked different users' activity across platforms. Youtube and Tiktok averaged 14 trackings while other apps averaged around 6. Now, while the majority of Youtube's trackers were first party networks (generally deemed safe), 13 out of 14 trackers on Tiktok were third party, which as I explained, is much more concerning.
