TikTok’s newly established US joint venture has updated its privacy policy to expand the scope of location data it can collect from its nearly 200 million users in the United States.

The revised policy was released after investors finalised a deal on Thursday with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to oversee the short-form video platform’s US operations.

According to the updated privacy terms, the joint venture may now “collect precise location data, depending on your settings”, replacing the earlier policy that permitted only the collection of “approximate” location information.

TikTok did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment on the change.

The policy states that sensitive personal information will be handled “in accordance with applicable law” and notes that users can disable location services at any time through their device settings.

Even before the creation of the new venture, TikTok gathered location data using a user’s SIM card or IP address, or both. However, a 2024 version of its privacy policy indicated that the company did not collect even approximate GPS data from American users running the latest version of the app.

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Precise location sharing has not yet been activated in the United States. It is expected to remain optional and turned off by default, requiring users to opt in through a pop-up message. TikTok has not specified when the update will be introduced for US users.

The platform already collects similar information from users in the UK and Europe through its “Nearby Feed” feature.

The US joint venture is also expanding permissions to gather data related to user interactions with TikTok’s artificial intelligence tools, including prompts, questions and details on how, when and where AI content is created.

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC includes managing investors such as cloud computing firm Oracle, which will oversee the retraining of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm and ensure it is secured in Oracle’s US cloud environment.

ByteDance will retain a minority stake just under 20 percent, while other investors include Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. Concerns remain in Washington over ByteDance’s continued involvement, with lawmakers questioning whether the deal fully safeguards US user data.

With inputs from BBC