TikTok is expanding its data collection empire, and avoiding the app won't protect you, but some easy steps can keep you safe.
TikTok tracks everything you do on its app - no surprises there.
What's less obvious is how this company tracks you in other parts of the internet that have nothing to do with TikTok.
Moreover, TikTok collects sensitive and potentially embarrassing information about you even if you have never used the app.
Over the past week, I've been monitoring websites that are sending TikTok data about cancer diagnoses, fertility, and even cases of mental health disorders.
It's part of a tracking empire that extends far beyond just the social media platform.
Now, thanks to a new set of features, TikTok is determined to expand its network and see even more details about your life.
The change came just weeks after the sale of TikTok's US operations to a group of companies with ties to US President Donald Trump.
The deal raises new privacy concerns from some human rights experts and users, although TikTok says it has transparent guidelines on how it responds to government requests for data.
Fortunately, this is a story about privacy with a positive outcome.
Steps you can take within about five minutes will help you prevent your information from falling into TikTok's hands.
The issue concerns major changes to TikTok's "pixel," a tracking tool that companies use to monitor your online behavior.
I asked a cybersecurity company called Diskonect to analyze it.
They found that TikTok's updated pixel collects information in unusual ways compared to competitors.
“It’s extremely invasive,” says Patrick Jackson, chief technology officer at Diskonect.
"When it comes to this expanded data sharing, when you do an analysis of the actual pixel code, you see things that look very bad."
When I clicked the button on the form that said I was a cancer patient or survivor, the website sent TikTok my email address with those details.
TikTok says its users are informed about its data practices and notifications in some cases.
The company also says it allows people to take control of their privacy settings.
"TikTok empowers users with transparent information about its privacy practices and gives them numerous tools to customize their experience," a TikTok spokesperson says.
"Advertising pixels are industry standards and are used widely across all social media and media platforms, even by the BBC."
But most people may not be aware that TikTok stores data about them even if they have never used its platform.
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Invisible tracker
Activity-tracking pixels are nothing new.
Companies that run marketing networks - including Google, Meta and hundreds of others - have been using them for years to eavesdrop on what people do across the internet.
They are an invisible, one-pixel-sized image on your screen that loads in the background of a website, packed with data-collecting technology.
Pixels are everywhere and they are constantly watching you.
Here's how they work.
TikTok, for example, encourages companies to place pixels on websites to help the tech giant collect more data.
Let's say I have an online shoe store.
If I use a pixel, it allows TikTok to collect a lot of data about my customers in order to show them targeted ads.
Plus, it helps TikTok understand whether people who see those shoe ads end up making that purchase.
That way I know that the ads I paid for are working and I might pay more for them.
(Like most media organisations, the BBC uses analytics tools and shares data with advertising partners in accordance with our privacy policy. The BBC does not use TikTok's web-based tracking pixels or place advertising pixels on third-party sites.)
When it comes to shoe store data, the information may be harmless.
But I've been reporting on TikTok's data collection for years, and those pixels can collect extremely personal information.
For example, I recently visited a cancer support website.
According to Diskonect, when I clicked a button on a form that said I was a cancer patient or survivor, the website sent TikTok my email address with those details.
A women's health company sent TikTok data when I was watching fertility tests.
A mental health advocacy organization pinged TikTok when I indicated I was looking for a crisis counselor.
Websites that use pixels send data about each visitor, so it doesn't matter if you don't have a TikTok account.
A TikTok spokesperson says this is practically not TikTok's responsibility.
They say that websites are required to comply with privacy laws and to tell you about their data practices.
TikTok says websites are prohibited from sharing certain types of sensitive information, such as health data.
And the company says proactive steps are needed to warn websites about sharing anything inappropriate.
Many of the world's largest websites have pixel trackers on them that send data back to big tech companies.
If you're concerned about these individual websites, you're missing the point.
Critics say the problem is that big tech companies like TikTok are increasingly tracking everything you do online.
According to DakDakGo, a privacy company, TikTok has trackers on 5 percent of the world's largest websites.
That figure has been steadily growing, though it pales in comparison to Google and its search engines on nearly 72 percent of the world's web pages and Meta on about 21 percent.
“This is literally the recipe that Google and Meta have used over the years,” says Peter Dolanjski, chief product officer at DakDakGo.
They started by collecting small amounts of data and expanded that into an empire that has massive insights into your daily life, he says.
All of this data means you see ads that are more tailored to you, which you may end up liking.
But this detailed record of your personal life wouldn't exist if tech companies weren't monitoring you, and that exposes you to various risks, Dolanjski says.
"Algorithms can use this data to take advantage of you," he says.
"They could extort you to buy something – it could be political campaigns, it could be price discrimination."
Advertising data is used for a variety of harmful purposes, from alleged civil rights violations to sexual discrimination.
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TikTok's data empire
TikTok's pixel is several years old, but it has changed a lot recently.
On January 22, 2026, when TikTok's US operation officially changed hands, users had to agree to a new set of data collection practices.
This includes a new advertising network that TikTok will use to display targeted ads on other people's websites.
To enable this new advertising system, TikTok updated its pixel.
In the past, TikTok's pixel basically just told companies whether their ads were generating sales.
Now the pixel helps companies track users who see an ad after they leave TikTok and make a purchase elsewhere.
That likely means more companies will buy TikTok ads, and the pixel will appear in more places, according to Ariela Garcia, chief operating officer at Check My Ads, a digital advertising monitoring group.
In other words, TikTok's following empire will only expand further.
“These tools naturally make the platform more attractive to advertisers, which is ultimately how platforms grow,” says Garcia.
Diskonect discovered that TikTok's pixel is now collecting more information than ever before, automatically intercepting data that websites send to Google.
Experts tell the BBC that this is unusually invasive.
“They’re silently downloading that data without the site owner explicitly sharing that information with TikTok,” Jackson says, meaning that websites could inadvertently send TikTok even more data than they intend.
TikTok disagrees.
A spokesperson says TikTok is clear about what data the pixel collects, and companies can set their sites differently if they don’t want TikTok to see what they’re sending to Google. (Google did not respond to a request for comment.)
TikTok also has some privacy controls that you can take advantage of.
Users can "clear" the data TikTok collects from the pixel using in-app settings.
People who don't have an account can ask TikTok to delete all the data it has about you.
But if you want to stop data collection before it happens, you need to take some extra steps.
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How to protect yourself
Let's start with the more joyful ones.
The best option?
Use a more private browser.
I know it's a tedious change, but it's easy to transfer your bookmarks.
Try it.
About 71 percent of people use Google Chrome, which preliminary academic research has shown to leak more information than many of its competitors.
Privacy experts recommend the DakDakGo and Brave browsers, which are specifically designed to protect your data.
Firefox and Safari are considered better options than Chrome, although they are generally less strict when it comes to privacy.
If changing browsers is too much for you, install a browser that blocks these trackers.
I asked Diskonect and DakDakGo to help with this article because they both make tracker blockers, but there are other options, including Privacy Badger and Ghostery.
Some ad blockers also block some data collection, including EdBlock Plus and uBlock Origin.
DakDakGo has a comparison table of which ad blockers do this best.
Just don't install browser extensions that aren't recommended by trusted sources – it's the same as installing apps.
Some are really suspicious.
And now the bad news.
If you follow those two steps, it will block TikTok's pixel and many other options.
But I won't pretend that your data problems are completely solved.
There are many other ways companies share data with TikTok, Google, Meta, and other advertisers.
Companies collect data about you and send it directly to tech giants from their own servers, for example.
"It's a black box, I can't tell you how often it's used, because everything happens behind the scenes," says Dolanjski.
"It's much harder to protect yourself from that. Your only real defense is to not use the same personal information across different services," to make it harder to match what you do across different parts of the internet.
The real solution is better privacy laws, says Garcia of Check May Eds.
"This is not a problem limited to just one platform. It's a problem of the broader ad tech ecosystem that ultimately needs to be addressed through stricter regulation," she says.
"The only thing that will really change this is when people raise their voices with their MPs and make it clear that privacy is something they actually care about very much."
Thomas Germain is a senior technology reporter at the BBC.
He writes the Keeping Tabs column and is one of the hosts of The Interface podcast.
His work exposes the hidden systems that govern your digital life and how you can live better within them.
BBC is in Serbian from now on and on YouTube, follow us HERE.
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