Social Media and Privacy
There has been a lot of talk over the past couple of weeks about the privacy of and the banning or selling of TikTok in the US (Marsh 2025). Although there appears to be an open and shut case being proposed by the American government the complete argument is obviously going to be more complicated.
If you have any interest in global privacy – and why not, because the Big Tech social media companies, not just TikTok, collect your data and have a global reach – have a look at John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” video discussing TikTok.
A couple of caveats here before you continue:
• Whether you agree or disagree with John Oliver, remember he and his team have a reputation for thoroughly researching their subjects before committing their content to air. The programme has won awards for its production. (Wikimedia projects 2020)
• It is a comedy programme making political points so some of the content may be weighed in favour of the programme’s political tendencies.
• Do not watch this video if you are easily offended – it contains adult humour.
If you are not happy with John Oliver’s point of view, then it is time to do your own research on yours and your organisation’s privacy.
My Situation
Here are some of the decisions I have made about my privacy.
• I do not have a TikTok account so obviously I do not have it on any of my devices.
• However, I also do not have any Meta apps, Google Chrome or X on my devices either.
• I do have LinkedIn and YouTube on my devices.
• I use Safari and Edge on my devices.
• I really wanted to try out the DeepSeek AI model but in the end I could not verify the privacy of the app so I chose not to install it. (Booth and Giuffrida 2025)
• I have the M365 app installed on all my devices.
You may have other thoughts when it comes to the apps I have mentioned above and that is fine. My point here is that you need to think about the privacy issues and make the decisions for yourself.
Productivity, Privacy and Risk
I mention the M365 (Microsoft 365) app in my above list as Microsoft has its own issues when it comes to sharing information about its users (Komenda 2024). However here is an issue faced by every organisation making decisions about privacy and cyber security; what is the risk and what are the alternatives? Operationally I need M365 on my devices and unfortunately Microsoft knows that.
There are privacy issues with other apps, not just social media apps.
Your Takeaway
This video is “America”-centric (if you watch the video you will understand the quotes) but the points raised about privacy can just as easily be applied to the UK. Even though we have privacy laws designed to protect our personal data it is always a good idea to be questioning vendors’ stance on your privacy and the use of your data.
Privacy is a good place to start if you are trying to improve your organisation’s or your own personal cyber security.
Next…
Following on from this article, I think we will look at OSINT. Open Source Intelligence which is nothing to do with Artificial Intelligence.
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
References
Booth, Robert, and Angela Giuffrida. 2025. “DeepSeek blocked from some app stores in Italy amid questions on data use.” the Guardian, January 29. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/29/deepseek-blocked-some-app-stores-italy-questions-data-use.
Komenda, Edward. 2024. “Outlook is Microsoft’s new data collection service | Proton.” Proton, January 5. https://proton.me/blog/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collection-service.
Marsh, Nick. 2025. “Trump says Microsoft in talks to buy TikTok.” BBC Home – Breaking News, World News, US News, Sports, Business, Innovation, Climate, Culture, Travel, Video & Audio, January 28. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3z55zz7xo.
Wikimedia projects. 2020. “List of awards and nominations received by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, April 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Last_Week_Tonight_with_John_Oliver.
