All you Have to Know About your Privacy on TikTok

1 April, 2022 — James Brandon

Privacy is a major concern in all major social media platforms; including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. By default, being a social platform, most of the privacy settings on TikTok are disabled. However, by accessing the Privacy settings, you can tweak a few options to increase your privacy on the app. TikTok is constantly researching and implementing privacy solutions on the app to prevent its users’ data from being misused by hackers and malicious users.

Since TikTok is available for both teens and adults, it is important to know to protect the digital life of your children and yourself on TikTok. This piece points out all you have to know about privacy on TikTok. A previous related article provided insight on how to know if your TikTok account has been hacked and how to fix it.

Make your Account Private

If you are concerned about the people following you on TikTok, you can change your account to a private one. This means that only users that you approve will be able to follow you and watch your videos. Your current followers will not be affected. To change your TikTok account to private:

• Launch TikTok on your device

• Tap the profile icon that appears on the bottom right side of the screen

• Tap the three horizontal bars located on the top right side of the profile page

• On the menu that appears, tap Security and Privacy

• On the page that appears, tap Privacy

• While on the Privacy menu, tap the toggle button next to the “Private account” option

• Your account will now become private.

Suggest your Account to Others

While still on the Privacy page, you can change the settings on who can suggest your account to others. To do this:

• Find the “Suggest your account to others” option and tap on it

• On the options available, read through each of them and turn off the toggle button on the option that suits you

Report or Block on TikTok

TikTok allows users to block and even report other users who invade their privacy.

To block or report a user on TikTok:

• While on the homepage, use the search function to search for the username of the specific person you want to block or report

• When you find the specific user you want to block, tap on their username to navigate to their profile page

• While on their profile page, tap the three vertical buttons located on the top right side of the page

• On the popup menu that appears at the bottom of the page, tap on either Report or Block options

• If you tap Report, you will be redirected to a page where you will report either the account or the content posted by that user

• If you tap on the Block option, a confirmatory message will appear on the screen. Tap Confirm to confirm the block

Managing Duet Controls

TikTok has a Duet feature that allows two users to create a video together. However, every user on TikTok can control the people that can duet on their videos. To activate this control:

• Navigate to the Privacy page and scroll down to find Duet. Tap on it

• On the page that appears, select either of the three options available to choose who can duet with your videos.

Control Comments on TikTok Posts

You can also control who comments on your TikTok videos. This helps to prevent malicious users from commenting negatively or abusively on your videos. To choose who can comment on your videos:

• While on the Privacy page, scroll to find Comments and tap on it

• While on the Comments page, read through the available options and choose the appropriate control that best suits you.

Enable Family Pairing

If you have a teenager that is on TikTok, you can use the family pairing feature to monitor and control their account. In a recently published article, we discussed how to activate parental controls on TikTok.