I think “duh, of course they have this data” is missing the point. A lot of comments here seem to be hyper focused on the inherent properties of a social netwo

I think “duh, of course they have this data” is missing the point. A lot of comments here seem to be hyper focused on the inherent properties of a social network necessary to serve users relevant content. As a tech community, we’re better equipped to understand this inherent property, but arguably the average user won’t have the same intuitions. There are two ways I think this can be read: 1) TikTok does what every social media platform does, but because of the cultural context, articles like this seek to warn users that their preferences are now on a list somewhere. In this case, it’s not that the existence of a list is surprising, but that who holds the list is worrisome. 2) Above and beyond the base functions of a social network, TikTok specifically maintains topic-specific reports for <reasons>. If this is indeed true, it just magnifies the concern, because now it’s not just about “TikTok could do this”, but “TikTok is doing this”. In other words, it’s one thing to have data about users as a natural byproduct of running the network. It’s another thing to build highly sensitive reports on that data, and depending on who builds those reports and why, questions will naturally arise. What’s not clear from the article is which thing is happening. > “TikTok does not identify individuals or infer sensitive information such as sexual orientation or race based on what they watch.” If they’re going to do something nefarious with this kind of data, it’s not necessary to infer orientation or race. This is a non-answer.