How to Delete a Tik Tok Account

What is TikTok?

TikTok is the all-singing, all-dancing, video-sharing app that has caught the world's attention with its short-form videos. Til Tok users can create and share videos on any topic with an array of extra editing features such as filters, stickers, sound effects, background music, and more.

Owned by Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok burst onto the social media scene back in 2017 and quickly became one of the most popular downloaded free apps.

Its popularity soared as countless celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon, Will Smith, Justin Beiber, and Jennifer Lopez all started using the app to engage users and followers with fun challenges. According to the latest TikTok download stats, TikTok has been installed more than 3.5 billion times, surpassing 1 billion active monthly users as of the end of Q2 in 2022.

So, why delete Tik Tok?

If TikTok is so popular, fun, and engaging, then why would someone want to delete Tik Tok? Well, here are a few reasons why you might want to consider it.

Aggressive data harvesting

Perhaps one of the most convincing reasons to delete Tik Tok is that the social media platform is one of the worst offenders of data collection. So much so that it's giving data-hungry Google a run for its money.

The list of what Tik Tok collects includes personal information such as username, date of birth, email address and/or telephone number, and the content you create, publish, and/or engage with.

It also collects your contact list, direct messages (including the content of the messages, by the way), and payment details should you make any purchases on the app. It also collects keystroke patterns and biometric data.

To see the full list in all its glory, you can check out the Tik Tok privacy policy.

But, the privacy policy doesn't really give the whole story.

Privacy policies are written with the general user in mind so they don't tend to go into too much technical detail. So when Australian-US cybersecurity firm, Internet 2.0 did a little digging into the data collected, it revealed so much more.

The report, released in July 2022, declared the amount of information that TikTok collected as “excessive” and “overly intrusive”.

Their technical analysis of the source code of TikTok mobile applications found that Tik Tok's data collection involved “device mapping” which retrieves data on all the other apps installed on the phone. This particular feature, the report stated, was completely “unnecessary”. Tik Tok does not need that information to be able to function.

What Tik Tok describes as collected “technical information” in its privacy policy is further broken down in the report broke to include the following:

• Wi-Fi SSID
• Device build serial number
• SIM serial number
• Integrated Circuit Card Identification Number (a globally unique serial number specifically tailored to a SIM card)
• Device IMEI
• Device MAC address
• Device line number
• Device voicemail number
• GPS status information
• Active subscription information
• All accounts on the device
• Complete access to read the clipboard

The last point on that list is perhaps the most worrying since password managers use clipboards. That means that TikTok could potentially collect people's passwords for other online accounts.

Surveillance app

There have been multiple incidents where Tik Tok has been accused of and even admitted to spying. In December 2022, four Tik Tok employees were fired after it was discovered they had accessed the data of multiple journalists in an attempt to find out the sources in a TikTok leak. They didn't manage it, but the fact that they tried was bad enough.

The leak in question was the basis of an article that was featured in Forbes a couple of months previous. It gave details regarding a Tik Tok monitoring project that had plans to surveil the location data of at least two American citizens and not for the functional purpose of showing relevant TikTok content.

Disinformation

Lawmakers in the US are not only urging government employees to delete Tik Tok, but they also want an all-out ban! One of the reasons why is because of how the platform's powerful algorithm could be used to spread disinformation. This fear stems from the fact that the social media is from China and this makes the US twitchy.

The FBI director, Chris Wray, has suggested that the Chinese government could manipulate Tik Tok content in so-called “influence operations” to sway public opinion or incite social unrest.

“Tik Tok brain”

If data harvesting, spying, espionage, or disinformation doesn't encourage users to delete Tik Tok, then maybe the idea of “Tik Tok brain” will. Studies have shown that time spent watching TikTok videos may lead to increases in addictive behavior, lower attention spans, feelings of anxiety and depression, issues with concentration, and adverse effects on short-term memory.

This isn't really a phenomenon limited to Tik Tok. The idea that our attention spans, concentration, and moods have been affected by the immediacy of the internet and social media is nothing new. However, TikTik's concentration on seconds-long content has seemingly confounded it so much so that “Tik Tok brain” has become a thing in its own right.

Things to know before you delete Tik Tok...

Before we tell you how to delete a Tik Tok account, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Deleting a Tik Tok account is permanent. Once it's gone, it's gone.

That means that all the videos you created or published will be deleted too. That is unless another Tik Tok user has saved or downloaded them. If you want to keep a copy of your fav videos for yourself, then download them to your phone before your delete Tik Tok.

The other thing you might want to do before you click delete on your Tik Tok account is to back up all your Tik Tok data. Perhaps you had some hilarious comments under those fav videos that you'd like to keep. We'll show you how you can download those too.

How to back up your data before you delete Tik Tok

Backing up your Tik Tok data will let you keep the comment history, as well as details of your username, video history, and privacy settings. So, how do you do that? Well, there are two steps to go through. First, you have to request the data and then you have to access the data to download it.

To request your TikTok data:

• In the TikTok app, click on “Profile”
• Then click on the Menu button
• Go to settings and privacy
• Tap on Manage account
• Then select Download your data

You'll be prompted to select how you'd like to receive your data, whether in TXT (human-readable) or JSON format (machine-readable).

• Then click on Request data.

Once you've submitted your request, you'll need to wait up to 3 days while Tik Tok creates the downloadable file. Then, you should receive a notification that your data is ready for download.

At this point, follow the same steps as above but instead of seeing a “Request data” button, you'll have the option to Download. The download file will be available for up to 4 days. After that point, if you haven't downloaded it, it will expire and you'll have to go through the request process again.

How to delete a Tik Tok account

Thankfully, TikTok has made it pretty easy to delete a Tik Tok account. Just click on your profile, tap on the 3-line hamburger icon in the top right, and then select settings and privacy. Then click on Manage account, and then delete account.

You'll be asked why you're leaving and you'll also be given the opportunity to download your data beforehand if you haven't already done so.

You'll be shown an information box that lets you know that upon deletion, your account will first be deactivated for 30 days. During this time you'll have the opportunity to reactivate your account (stopping the deletion process) should you change your mind. Also during those 30 days, your TikTok account won't be visible to the public. Should you not reactivate your account within that time frame, it all disappears.

If you're sure you want to delete Tik Tok, hit “continue”.

Ready to delete Tik Tok?

So there you have it. You've learned how to delete a Tik Tok account and why you might want to do it in the first place. Even if Tik Tok isn't in the espionage business, you can't deny that the social media platform collects data above and beyond the necessary. Whether its excessive data harvesting is a danger to national security or not, it is most definitely a threat to your personal privacy. You might decide that that alone is worth deleting Tik Tok.

If you want to escape from other social media platforms, read How To Guard Your Private Information and Delete Unwanted Content from Facebook.