Tell TikTok: Don’t Collect Users’ Immigration Status

TikTok lit the fuse — and people are done being treated like expendable data points.

After TikTok quietly updated its U.S. privacy policy to say it may collect immigration status, users erupted in outrage. Immigrants and mixed-status families didn’t need an explanation to understand the danger. This is the kind of information that can get someone detained, deported, or jailed if it’s leaked, shared, or abused.

It’s unclear whether TikTok is actively collecting new immigration data. But that’s the problem. TikTok refuses to make a clear, public promise that it won’t collect, infer, store, or share this information at all. At a time when ICE is ramping up raids, deportations, and surveillance, uncertainty isn’t reassurance — it’s a threat.

Tell TikTok: “Commit to protecting your users’ safety and freedom. Update your privacy policy to state that you will not collect data about immigration status or citizenship.”

Big Tech has perfected this playbook: vague policies, slippery language, and no accountability when real people pay the price. A single breach or quiet disclosure can shatter families. Immigration status isn’t just “sensitive data.” It’s a weapon in the wrong hands, especially now that MAGA billionaires have taken ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations.

The backlash shows people have had enough. We’re sick of corporations treating us like numbers instead of human beings with lives on the line. TikTok’s growth was fueled by immigrants, communities of color, LGBTQ+ users, and young people who rely on the platform to speak freely. Leaving their safety ambiguous is unacceptable.

Adam Presser, CEO of TikTok USDS Joint Venture, must act now. TikTok must issue a clear, binding commitment that it will never collect, infer, store, sell, or share users’ immigration status or citizenship information — and put it in writing.

Sign now to demand TikTok protect the privacy and civil rights of immigrant users.

The petition to CEO of TikTok USDS Joint Venture Adam Presser reads: “Commit to protecting your users’ safety and freedom. Update your privacy policy to state that you will not collect data about immigration status or citizenship.”