The US government formalized a measure todelete TikTok from all devices and systems within all federal agencieslast month.
This decision, which the European Union and Canada are also following, is based on TikTok's sophisticated user data collection methods and the Chinese government's retention of access to corporate data. Concerns about privacy surrounding TikTok have been widely recognized by users for the past 2-3 years, with keywords like "delete TikTok within YouTube or Google Search" and "rejecting TikTok cookies" becoming common. The €5 million fine imposed on TikTok UK and Ireland last month by France, for making it difficult to refuse all cookie collection, is another very tangible countermeasure to these concerns about user data collection and utilization.
However, TikTok is expected to have generated close to $10 billion in advertising revenue as of last year, and it has been confirmed that the average time users spend on the platform is the longest compared to other platforms, with in-app purchases also showing seven consecutive quarters of growth.
Therefore, it's difficult to conclude that TikTok's growth is solely due to the platform's appeal. Instead, it's necessary to view this phenomenon as a reflection of the current ambiguous attitude users have towards their digital privacy.
Privacy, for an individual, is the ability to control who can know their information, why, and through what means.In the real world, privacy can be simply and clearly protected with hats or laptop film, but how about managing privacy in the digital realm? People get angry at articles about excessive location tracking by companies, but they don't change their iPhone settings. Perhaps they are simply succumbing to social pressure to express their interest and are adopting a compromising attitude to continue using the products and services where this technology is applied. And this seems like a textbook example of what social scientists call the "intention-behavior gap."
For many people, understanding what digital privacy even is is incredibly difficult. How many people check the privacy policy at the bottom of the websites they visit? The New York Times reviewed 150 companies' privacy policies and called them "an incomprehensible disaster," noting that some were more complex than Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason."
For the most part, digital privacy has been a theoretical concern for people. They experience fear by listening to stories of others being 'hacked,' having unauthorized photos leaked online, or becoming victims of data-driven advertising, and also experience targeted advertising as a nuisance in their lives through pop-up notifications and spam calls.
However, the growing sense of being a potential target for this constant pursuit of others' intentions is promoting a "disconnect" culture, where people are starting to take a stricter stance between corporations and their own interests. Apple has already taken this as a business opportunity and symbolically appealed to a user-centric approach to digital privacy by providing options within their own ecosystem, the App Store, for users to determine whether or not existing digital advertising platform companies can access their user data.
So, how can businesses connect this potential user need for privacy with strategic opportunities moving forward?
First, simplicity provides a sense of security. Fear of privacy stems from opaque intentions and complex related policies. People start to worry when they don't know the scope of use of their personal data. Also, long-form policy pages feel like they're written to protect the company rather than explain things to people. Instead, people need simple sentences that help them understand what the company's technology can and cannot do.
Second, provide easy action guidelines. In the physical world, privacy is intuitive and tangible. It can be easily controlled with clothes, masks, curtains, etc. Privacy in the digital realm should feel the same way, and this can start with providing opportunities to take small, easy, yet symbolic actions. Many people still put tape over their laptop cameras. Snapchat differentiated itself in 2016 by offering users the opportunity to take action related to their privacy control with its My Eyes Only feature. The core of this privacy must be visible in the interface and controllable through everyday, intuitive interactions.
Strategies to make privacy intuitive and concrete should no longer be solely aimed at emptiness.
This article is the original content published on March 14, 2023, in Electronic Newspaper Column.
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