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TikTok is letting itself collect your biometric data

The social media app changed its privacy policy earlier this week.

Sean Keane Former Senior Writer
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TikTok can collect your faceprints and voiceprints, its updated privacy policy revealed.

Sarah Tew/CNET

TikTok tweaked its US privacy policy this week to say it could collect "biometric identifiers and biometric information" like "faceprints and voiceprints" from your videos. The video-based social app will ask for permission where required by law, the policy notes. 

Only a few states have biometric privacy laws -- California, Illinois, New York, Texas and Washington -- which may mean TikTok doesn't have to ask permission from people in other states, as noted by TechCrunch.

"As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, we recently updated our privacy policy to provide more clarity on the information we may collect and how it's used," a TikTok spokesperson told CNET in an emailed statement.

In February, TikTok agreed to pay $92 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged the app captured biometric and private data from users in the US and passed private user data on to third parties.