TikTok's First US-Exclusive Feature

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It hasn't even been a month since the U.S. arm of TikTok came under new ownership, and already American users are getting an exclusive feature. In a surprise move, the app today introduced a new "Local Feed" specific to U.S. users, ostensibly aimed at helping Americans see content from their immediate area. Technically, it's similar to the "Nearby Feed" that was introduced in the U.K. and Europe in December, although this specific iteration might differ in the minor details, like the name. Perhaps more importantly, the company wants access to your GPS data to power the Local Feed, but it's opt-in, and you can still use a version of the local feed without sharing it.
TikTok's new Local Feed

TikTok announced its Local Feed today, and it has already popped up in my app without the need for an update or for me to opt into seeing it. It's located to the left of the Following feed, and tapping on it brings you to a scrollable list of posts rather than the usual "swipe-to-navigate" autoplaying videos. TikTok says that the feed is "designed to help you discover and connect with content, businesses, and services wherever you are," and yeah, what I saw was mostly restaurant recommendations for New York City.

It's worth noting that I was already occasionally getting these recommendations on my For You feed, and when I go on vacation, these posts usually change to match wherever I'm staying. So the app's algorithm did already take location into account, at least to a degree. But the Local Feed allows you to choose when to see those posts, instead of waiting for the For You feed to show them to you at its discretion. It also, supposedly, can make them even more specific to your location, which I'll get into shortly.
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(Note that while it does originally display as a scrollable list, hopping into a video will allow you to swipe through the feed as usual.)
How to see the Local Feed on your TikTok account

The Local Feed showed up for me automatically when I opened my app today, and TikTok confirmed to me on a phone call that you do not have to opt in to seeing it. However, there are some restrictions to what gets posted to it. For instance, accounts belonging to users under the age of 18 won't have their content featured in the Local Feed, and neither will private accounts or accounts where post privacy is set to Friends or Only You.
TikTok's Local Feed has two ways of knowing your location
The author's Privacy settings on TikTok (left) and iPhone (center, right)
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

What is slightly concerning about TikTok's Local Feed is a disclaimer towards the bottom of the post announcing it, noting that TikTok will use your GPS location to "help power the Local Feed." However, in a phone call, the company clarified to me that this isn't so clear cut. Essentially, there are two ways for TikTok's Local Feed to know where you are, "coarse location data collection" and "precise GPS data collection."

Coarse data collection is how the app worked previously, and it uses information like your IP address, which network you're connecting from, and some of your posting activity (such as how you've been tagged) to generally figure out where you are. This does not use your GPS, and is more similar to, say, Netflix knowing that you're watching from the U.S. based on your wifi network. This functionality cannot be disabled, but TikTok confirmed to me that it tends to only narrow your location down to a county this way, and both the For You feed and the Local Feed can then use that to find information that's relevant to you. Essentially, this is how the app has operated for years, and TikTok confirmed to me that "nothing has changed with respect to approximate location."

What's new is the ability to share your precise GPS data with TikTok, which isn't mandatory for the Local Feed to work, but will be used to help the Local Feed deliver even more specific content. For instance, it might show you content for Red Hook or Astoria (specific neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens) rather than just content related to all of Brooklyn or Queens.. According to a TikTok support page, you'll find the toggle to enable this in the TikTok app under Settings and privacy > Privacy, although it's still rolling out to some users, and I don't have it yet.

According to the TikTok representative I spoke with, there was initially some confusion among users, as the Local Feed appeared to be showing them content specific to their area even while the app did not appear to be tracking their GPS location in their phones' settings (for iPhone, this is under Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services). However, I was told this was drawn from existing coarse location data (described above), and if you do not have the option to enable Location Services in the TikTok app or you do not see the TikTok app located on the Location Services page in your device settings, then you can rest assured that TikTok cannot access your GPS data.

That should come as a relief to anyone concerned about TikTok's new privacy policy, which initially appeared to give the company permission to gather your "precise location" so long as you had location services enabled on your phone, but now reads that location services need to be enabled for the TikTok app specifically for that to be the case.
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What do you think so far?
How the Local Feed uses your GPS data

In other words, the Local Feed does not track your GPS data by default, but that doesn't mean you won't see anything if you don't opt in to sharing your GPS data—it'll instead use the same course location data the app has had access to for years to fill that feed. If you want more precise content and are OK with the app tracking your GPS data, then, you simply need to wait for TikTok Location Services to be rolled out to you and then enable it in the TikTok app under Settings > Security and privacy > Location Services.

If you don't, the company "does not have access to your precise location," a fact noted in a later update to the initial post announcing the Local Feed. Meanwhile, if you don't see the Location Services toggle on that page at all, then according to the update, "you don't have access to the feature" yet and need to wait for it to roll out to you. Whatever the case, until you enable that setting, the Local Feed will use approximate data instead.

If you do enable Location Services for TikTok, the company says it will only track your location while you're using the app, and that when it does, you will see an on-screen indicator while your location is being accessed. Additionally, accounts for users under the age of 18 will be unable to turn GPS sharing on, although it remains optional for all users regardless, and is set to off by default.

Meanwhile, if you want to turn off approximate location tracking, your only choice is to delete the app altogether—although that was also true before the Local Feed was introduced.

Update 2/11/2026 at 4:22 PM: Added clarification from TikTok about how the Local Feed feature works, and when it does and doesn't access your data.

Personally I'd just uninstall TikTok now that it's been taken over by the Ellisons. It's just become a propaganda tool.

If you’re an avid TikTok user, you probably already know that the app collects a lot of data about you. However, an analysis by the BBC has now revealed something more alarming: even if you don’t have a TikTok account, the app can track your every move.

There’s a sophisticated advertising algorithm in the background that’s been particularly active and aggressive since TikTok’s takeover by US investors, namely Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. It distributes secret little tracking pixels that can track users across multiple websites, regardless of whether they have the TikTok app on their device.

According to the BBC, this is a deliberate tactic used to create user profiles and deliver targeted advertising. These user profiles contain a wealth of data, including information on purchases made, email addresses, and even health data.

One example from the report mentions a form in which users were asked to indicate whether or not they were cancer patients. The click was then immediately forwarded to TikTok via a pixel embedded in the website. Other cases involved fertility issues and mental illnesses.
How is TikTok identifying users?

Website operators themselves are unaware that TikTok has installed these tracking pixels on their sites. Therefore, they can’t consent to (or reject) the practice. The BBC states that in some cases, TikTok even intercepts data that was intended to be transmitted to Google.

Data privacy experts describe TikTok’s approach as “extremely invasive.” Even if TikTok subsequently filters out sensitive data, it should not be intercepting this information without users’ knowledge in the first place. In addition, people without their own accounts have limited options for preventing TikTok from processing their data.

Another problem is that TikTok doesn’t use traditional third-party cookies, which can be easily rejected by users. Instead, TikTok relies on “fingerprinting,” which is a method that collects and integrates all kinds of innocuous information (e.g., operating system, battery level, time zone, screen resolution) to identify users.

When all that information is combined, it creates a unique “fingerprint” that corresponds to a specific person.
What you can do about it

According to the BBC’s report, it isn’t enough to uninstall the TikTok app, delete your account, or remove cookies. TikTok evaluates all its tracking data on the server side, not in the user’s browser.

Data and security experts therefore recommend preventing TikTok from intercepting and storing your data in the first place. To do this, you’ll want to switch to a privacy-forward browser like Firefox, DuckDuckGo, or Brave. Alternatively, you can install tracking blockers like Ghostery or Disconnect on your current browser.

Also, restrict ad tracking in your app settings. In Android, you can reset your advertising ID by going to Settings > Google > Ads and selecting “Delete advertising ID.” In iOS, you can navigate to Settings > Privacy and Security > Tracking and turn off “Allow Apps to Request Tracking.”

TikTok itself states that data collection is anything but secret. Users of the app can also delete the data collected about them in the app’s settings. However, the issue is for those who don’t use the app at all.