Lawsuit Claims TikTok Violates Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Surveillance Rules

In this photo illustration, the download page for the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone in Washington on Aug. 7, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

TikTok records every keystroke, click, swipe, and text communication—including information written but not sent by the user—when users enter other websites through the app.

That level of surveillance not only goes beyond user expectations, but in some states, it is a violation of wiretapping laws, a class action lawsuit filed last week in Pennsylvania alleges.

The case claims TikTok violates the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, which bans the interception and recording of private communications without prior consent of all parties to the conversation.

For example, to record a phone conversation, both parties must agree to the recording. The same goes for certain electronic snooping. These states have similar laws: California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Washington.

The case against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance Ltd. was brought by Isabella Kowalski, 19, of Warrington, Pennsylvania, who has had TikTok installed on her phone since 2018. Kowalski could not be reached for this story. The Epoch Times requested comment from her Philadelphia attorney, Kenneth J. Grunfeld, and from TikTok and ByteDance.

In November, Kowalski visited a makeup company link through the TikTok app and shared personal information on that website to purchase a product from that company. She never agreed to share that information with TikTok, court papers say.

‘Looking Over the Shoulder’

“When a purchase is made via TikTok’s in-app browser, [TikTok] automatically intercepts all the details of the purchase entered by the user, including the name of the purchaser, their address, telephone number, credit card or bank information, usernames, passwords, dates of birth, and other personal information,” says the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

“After intercepting and capturing the website communications, [TikTok] uses those website communications to recreate the Pennsylvania citizen’s entire visit to the website. [TikTok] creates and saves video replay of the user’s behavior on the website for analysis. This is the electronic equivalent of ‘looking over the shoulder’ of each visitor to the websites for the entire duration of their website interaction.”

The information, taken without the user’s consent, is used to send more targeted advertising to the user, court papers allege.

Kowalski is the lead plaintiff on the case, which is presented as a class action lawsuit that will likely include thousands of people.

In 2021, TikTok was the most popular app in the United States. It had 1.2 billion active users globally in the fourth quarter of that year. In 2021, TikTok generated an estimated $4.6 billion in revenue, with the United States as TikTok’s largest market outside of China, court papers say.

The case alludes to the addictive nature of TikTok through the way it engages the brain.

“The content on the TikTok app is aimed at perpetuating its users’ dopamine (i.e., the neurotransmitter released in the brain to give a sense of reward or accomplishment), typically with videos less than one minute long,” the complaint says. “Just as with a slot machine at a casino, users can find themselves scrolling the TikTok app for hours without realizing it, awash in a dopamine rush.”

The suit asks the court to determine whether TikTok violated the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act and whether the company is liable for damages.

The Pennsylvania law calls for a fine of $1,000 a day for each violation.