TikTok users panic over the app’s ‘immigration data’ collection in its new privacy policy, but the wording isn’t new—here’s what it means

TikTok’s newly updated U.S. privacy policy has sparked a wave of anxiety and calls for a boycott among users after the document explicitly listed “citizenship or immigration status” among the types of sensitive information the platform may process. 

​The panic was likely fanned in part by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) recently expanded enforcement in Minnesota, as well as the fatal shooting of 37-year-old protester Alex Pretti.

The immigration-specific language...