TikTok has changed its terms and conditions and privacy policies for American users, expanding its ability to target advertising and track the location of people who give the app permission to do so.

The update came after ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, spun out an American TikTok entity Thursday as part of a deal to loosen the app’s ties to China or face a ban in the United States.

The revised privacy policy includes a statement that the new U.S. TikTok will share some data with TikTok’s global operations to ensure that users have an “interoperable experience.” It said it was sharing that data “consistent with applicable law.”

American users started seeing a pop-up message Thursday as they logged into the app asking them to agree to the new terms.

Here’s what to know.

Privacy Policy

The language around user location permissions was updated.

TikTok’s previous language on this, found through the Wayback Machine, an internet archive, said at least one version of the app did not collect precise location information. But it noted that if users scrolled on a different version and they had granted the app permission, TikTok might collect that information.

The new version of the privacy policy says that if users enable location services, TikTok can now collect approximate or precise location information. People can opt out of this through their device settings.

That kind of data tracking has become more common across social media, said Caitriona Fitzgerald, a policy director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit.

Targeted Advertising

TikTok’s targeted advertising terms also changed. The pop-up message said the new terms changed the way the app would use people’s information “to show you ads outside TikTok.”

The previous terms and conditions said TikTok would use the data it collected to provide users with “tailored advertising” and other personal features like custom search results.

The language in the new policy was more sweeping. It said TikTok would use the data it collected from users and third parties to show “customized ads and other sponsored content” both on TikTok and on other websites. Users can adjust their advertising permissions in the app, it said.

Often, “companies are allowed to collect data and use it in lots of ways we don’t expect, including to advertise to us,” Fitzgerald said.

“You go to a website and you look for, say, medical symptoms. There are dozens of trackers on that site that are sending what you’re looking for back to those advertising companies,” she added. They then use that data “to advertise to you all over the web and within their apps.”

Generative Artificial Intelligence

TikTok’s previous terms and conditions did not have a section on generative AI. The new terms include one.

The language outlines some new rules around making and posting AI content. Some of them forbid people to imply that any AI-generated content is real, including by removing watermarks or metadata that may help identify it as fake.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Emmett Lindner/Andres Kudacki
c. 2026 The New York Times Company