Understanding TikTok Data Privacy and Trust User Interviews

Background

Team: 50 internal stakeholders

role: lead researcher

Timeline: 4-5 weeks

product: TikTok trust intiatives

This was a strategic foundational project that aims to understand TikTok users’ trust journey and identify areas of opportunity for the product and marketing teams.

Methodology: moderated user interviews

While TikTok had Trust Benchmark Surveys and Brand Health Tracker Surveys, there was no qualitative understanding of what the survey numbers mean. These interviews provided color and life back into the quantitative survey results.

Objective

One of the top goals for TikTok leadership is to become one of the most trusted social media platforms. This initiated a Trust Benchmark and Brand Health Tracker Survey that consistently measured trust across different regions (e.g., US, UK, MX, JP, FR, DE, and ID). Insights from the benchmark showed that some of the top drivers of trust are users’ perceptions of data privacy policies, however users were scoring in the mid-low ranges. This study aims to understand what shapes users' trust, and how we can remediate mid-low levels of trust by understanding how we can improve perceptions of data privacy policies. 

research questions

1. What shapes users trust in TikTok?

2. What does data privacy policies mean to users?

3. How can we remediate mid-low levels of trust, if anything?

Methodology

Participants

• Monthly Active TikTok Users

• Half the users are self reported high trust in TikTok

• Half the users are self reported low trust in TikTok

• Internal Portion: I internally conducted user interviews with a total of (30) TikTok users in the local languages

  • 10 users from United States (English)

  • 10 users from United Kingdom (English)

  • 10 users from Mexico (Spanish with support from another researcher)

• External Portion: I managed an external vender to conduct user interviews with a total of (50) TikTok users in the local languages

  • 10 users from United States (English)

  • 10 users from Japan (Japanese)

  • 10 users from France (French)

  • 10 users from Germany (German)

  • 10 users from Indonesia (Indonesian)

  • *Because of the nuanced TikTok ban in the US, I decided to double the sample size by recruiting for US users both internally and externally. This also ensured research results were not biased when participants were speaking to an internal employee from TikTok. I scoped the project, held bi-weekly syncs, observed translated sessions from all regions, and rewrote the final report to ensure insights informed strategic decisions for internal product teams.

Procedure

• Introduction (5min): Provide instructions and built rapport

• General Trust in Apps (10min): Understand their general trust in apps, specifically social media apps. Dive into any positive or negative experience they may have had with data privacy policies from any app.

• Trust in TikTok (15min): Understand their overall trust journey with TikTok and any concerns they have with TikTok’s data privacy policies.

• Data Initiatives (15min): Reviewed TikTok data privacy initiatives to understand users’ perceptions and whether education of the different initiatives impact their trust in TikTok.

• Data Privacy Features (10min): Understand their perceptions of TikTok’s data privacy product features and how they compare to other platforms.

• Wrap-up Questions (5min): Follow-up questions were asked to allow participant to reflect on their overall experience and identify if education of data initiatives or features changed their trust in TikTok.

Application: Zoom interviews

• Internal interviews were recruited via backend query pulls, which sent an in-app notification to their TikTok account, inviting them to participate in an interview for a gift card.

• External interviews were recruited with support from the vendor.

Key Findings

1. trust is easily lost and hard to gain

• Typically users start off with moderate trust. They may have heard negative news in the media about TikTok, but they are curious about the app enough to give it a try.

• Users develop high trust in TikTok with more time spent on the app. High trust users understand that TikTok may be using their data to provide a more personalized feed, but see no issues with this equal exchange of data. This can take many months-years before a user reflects on their overall experience on TikTok and deems it overall positive.

• Users can easily lose trust in TikTok when they see bad actors (e.g., scams, fake profiles, inappropriate content, etc). These bad actors can reinforce what they previously have heard about TikTok and cause users to lose their trust quickly.

• However, TikTok has the opportunity to remediate mid-low levels of trust. Taking action on bad actors (e.g., removing fake profiles, flagging scammers, etc) can push low trust users to moderate trust users. And educating users on the many data privacy initiatives that TikTok has in place can also push a moderate trust user to a high trust user.

2. First and second hand experiences can impact trust

• First hand personal experiences impact high and low trust users. High trust users anchor on their overall positive experiences on TikTok, while low trust users focus on the few negative experiences they have personally seen on TikTok.

• Second hand experiences impact moderate and low trust users. Moderate trust users are skeptical of all social media apps, and so their capacity to trust any social media app is overall lower, regardless if they have had only positive experiences on TikTok. Negative personal experiences of TikTok from low trust users are reinforced by what they hear from the news and media of all social media companies and the overall geopolitical climate.

Key Recommendations

1. 🛡️ Proactively respond to trust incidents on TikTok (e.g., reported scams, fake profiles, misinformation, etc).

2. 📚 Improve education of data privacy policies (i.e., Project Texas, Oracle Data Storage, Cyber Security Initiatives, Third Party Oversight of Code, etc) using everyday analogies which make a complex topic easy to understand. For example, initiatives that explore the backend system to identify security holes that are vulnerable to hacking was compared to a fire alarm drill, where the system is tested in case of an emergency.

3. 📢 Own the narrative so TikTok can proactively respond to negative news (i.e., marketing campaigns, TikTok videos that appear on the FYP, etc) from second hand sources in the media and press.

Impact

leadership visibility

• Research insights were presented directly to the CEO (Shou Zi Chew) as well as his -1 and -2 director levels.

insights leveraged company wide to inform product roadmaps and strategy

• Research insights were used across different pillars in the organization to explain trust levels for TikTok users. Marketing teams that leveraged Brand Health Tracker Survey and UX teams that anchored on the Trust Benchmark Survey, all relied on key insights from this report to explain why trust levels were rising or falling in certain months.

• Multiple teams across the organization (e.g., Trust and Safety, Marketing, Creator, etc) leveraged research insights from this report to inform their product roadmap for H2 2025.

led to marketing campaign amidst news of Tiktok bans

• Insights from this report drove a new marketing campaign that humanized TikTok by creating a trustworthy, relatable face for the brand.