People are ‘deleting TikTok’ over new 'insane' Terms of Service

TikTok users in the US have declared they're deleting the popular social media app after seeing the new terms of service they'd have to agree to in order to keep using it in America.

While the popular video app is run by Chinese company ByteDance, its US operations are now run by a joint venture to get around a federal law which demanded ByteDance either sell TikTok or lose access to the US.

It was actually banned for a short time in the final days of the Biden administration, but when Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, it started working again.

Now, however, this joint venture which runs TikTok in the US has released new terms of service as they've made changes to the app's privacy policy meaning it could collect more data on users.

TikTok previously said it would collect a person's 'approximate' location data, but in updated terms they will now 'collect precise location data, depending on your settings', though users can turn off their location settings if they like.

TikTok in the US is being run by a different operation now, though it's being run by Adam Presser, TikTok's former head of operations (Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Even before this change the app was collecting your location data using your SIM card and IP address, but not GPS information.

This is one of several complaints TikTok users have had with the changes that are coming after the joint venture took over American operations.

People looking at the terms of service see it's saying TikTok could collect data on the following:

• Racial or ethnic origin

• National origin

• Religious beliefs

• Mental health diagnosis

• Physical health diagnosis

• Sexual life

• Sexual orientation

• Status as transgender or nonbinary

• Citizenship status

• Immigration status

• Financial information

• Government-issued identification numbers, such as a driver's license number

There's been a 150 percent increase in people deleting TikTok in the US since the update was announced (Kayla Bartkowski/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

These are actually not new things for the app to be collecting, with previous versions of the agreement also saying TikTok would be collecting this, but it's put it at the forefront of people's minds again as they've had to sign up to it again.

Some things about the new terms are different, in a change made the company says it now 'processes such sensitive personal information in accordance with applicable law', whereas CBS reports that before TikTok said it only used the data it collected from users to run things or comply with legal requirements.

As such, a number of people have been declaring this is the last straw for them and it's time to get off TikTok, with CNBC reporting that since the joint venture was announced the rate of people ditching the app has increased.

They report that the daily average of people in the US deleting TikTok has increased by almost 150 percent since the joint venture was announced.

The LADbible Group has contacted TikTok for comment.