TikTok users will soon lose the ability to opt out of personalized ads, starting on April 15th. The wildly popular short-form video app has in the region of a billion active users a month, or perhaps just shy of that. By making targeted apps mandatory, it can maximize the revenue it generates from selling advertising to that huge audience.
Occasionally, while users are swiping through content within TikTok, an ad will appear, though it’s possible to skip the ad. To date, users have been able to opt in for personalized ads, which means they are geared toward the viewer’s personal interests based on their activity within the app. Although this can raise privacy concerns, especially in view of the general concern over what apps are doing with user data, it can also be viewed as being more beneficial to the viewer, as it prevents them from dealing with ads they have no interest in.
According to a report from Vox, the settings in TikTok will change, though, preventing users from opting out of personalized ads. This is a change from current policy, which allows people to toggle 'Personalized ads' off in the 'personalize and data' section of the settings. However, TikTok will still allow its users to opt out of personalized ads based on data it gets from its advertising partners. TikTok reportedly told Vox that the reasoning behind this move is to “help businesses reach the people they care about in a creative and meaningful way,” while still making sure to respect user privacy. It’s possible this change is also due to an upcoming iOS 14 update that will require apps to get a user’s permission before tracking activity between one app and another. So, perhaps TikTok is trying to increase ad revenue on its own app, where its revenue will soon be weighted toward to a greater extent.
What This Means For TikTok Users
Once this change comes into play, the ads that users see will be based on what they do on TikTok. For example, if someone follows a makeup artist like James Charles, they may then see more ads related to makeup companies. Or, if the user watches a lot of cat videos, they may see ads for cat food. Users will be more likely to see ads for products they might actually buy.
While it looks as though TikTok may be able to avoid the App Tracking Transparency feature included in the next iOS14 update, it’s still potentially a smart move for TikTok to focus on personalized ad revenue. It encourages people to actually buy from TikTok’s advertising partners, which is a good thing for TikTok in terms of revenue. It’s also good for those businesses and for the users themselves to an extent.
Source: Vox