Ads and Your Data

Respecting privacy in advertising

We build privacy into TikTok by design so that our community can confidently discover, create, and enjoy entertaining content. We are committed to being transparent with our users about how we collect, use and share data for advertising.

About TikTok ads

Businesses show ads on TikTok to reach the people they care about in a creative and meaningful way. This helps keep TikTok free.

You will see different kinds of ads when you use TikTok. All of the ads that TikTok is paid to place in user feeds or the search page are clearly marked with a Sponsored or Ad icon. You can interact with the ad very much in the same way as content posted by users. For example, you can share, like, comment on, or replay an ad if the advertiser enables the features for a particular ad; you can also report the ad if inappropriate.

TikTok Ad Policies determine the type of products and services that can be advertised on TikTok, in addition to the type of advertising content that is prohibited or restricted on our platform.

Reasons you may see certain TikTok ads

We want advertising to enhance your TikTok experience. To achieve that, we may show you personalized ads, which are ads we think you will be interested in based on information we have about you.

To help you see relevant and useful ads, TikTok may use information that you provide when you set up your TikTok account, device and network connection information collected when you access TikTok, your in-TikTok activity (including your previous interaction with similar ads) and off-TikTok activity and other data from our advertising partners, depending on your ads personalization choices. Ads that you are seeing may be based on:

• General information:
  • Location information: For example, you may see an ad from an advertiser wanting to reach TikTok users in Berlin, Germany if we think you are in Berlin based on your approximate location information. We derive your approximate location from the device and network connection information we collect when you access TikTok (such as the country associated with your device SIM card and/or the city associated with your IP address).
    • In some regions, we may also use information you provide or non-precise GPS data collected from your device with your permission to determine your location.
  • Device and network connection information: For example, TikTok might show ads for a certain mobile app if it’s supported on that device’s operating system or it may show ads targeted to an operating system version.
    
    
• Demographic information:
  • Age information: For example, the age associated with your account can affect whether TikTok shows you an ad for a car rental service available to people aged 25 and over.
  • Gender: The gender associated with your account can also be used to tailor the ads that you see.
    
    
• In-TikTok activity: TikTok may display ads about things that you already showed interest in, based on how you view, search, share and like content (including ads) or interact with creator(s). For example, a pet supply store might want to advertise a sale on dog toys to people interested in dogs; we might show this ad to users who liked a lot of videos about dogs. Or an outdoor activity store wants to advertise tents to followers of creators who post content about outdoor activities and nature. We will show this ad to followers of those types of creators.
  
  
• Off-TikTok activity: TikTok may personalize ads based on the information shared by our advertising, measurement & data partners. For example, a fashion brand may want to promote their summer clothing collection to customers who’ve purchased from their website or app in the past. The brand can share information with us so that we can show its ads to the TikTok users we think it’s trying to reach.
  The shared information may include device information like your phone’s advertising ID and/or email addresses and phone numbers that have been encrypted. Partners may also share the actions you take on the advertiser’s app or website, like whether you placed an item in a shopping cart.
  There are a few ways through which our partners share information with us:
  • Integration with TikTok advertiser tools (such as TikTok Pixel, SDK, APIs ) through which TikTok can receive information about certain users’ actions on the advertiser’s website or app.
  • Uploading an audience file that contains device or encrypted contact information that TikTok can match to its users to create a custom audience for the advertiser to target.
  • Asking their measurement partners to send us data collected on behalf of the advertiser about their users’ actions and events on the advertiser’s website or app.

Ads may also be based on other data types described in our Privacy Policy.

Sharing data with measurement partners

We help advertisers measure the effectiveness of their ads on TikTok, such as whether a gaming app’s ad resulted in more downloads of their app. To do this, we share information about your views or interactions with ads with our advertisers’ measurement partners, which are companies that help advertisers understand how their ads achieved their marketing objectives. Advertisers also share your actions on their apps or websites or in their stores with these partners, who then determine whether these actions should be credited to an ad you saw on TikTok. This helps keep the advertising on TikTok relevant and keeps TikTok free for all users.

Control the ads that you see

You can choose to change how ads are personalized for you through the available settings.

Can I block or report an ad?

Although you can’t opt out of seeing all ads on TikTok, you can influence the types of ads that you see by providing feedback to TikTok about the ad video.

Report an ad:

• Click on Share at the bottom right of the ad > Choose Report > Follow on-screen instructions
• Long pressing on the Ad video > Choose Report > Follow on-screen instructions

Hide an ad:

• Click on Share at the bottom right of the ad > Choose Not interested > Follow on-screen instructions
• Long press on the Ad video > Choose Not interested > Follow on-screen instructions

Review why you are seeing an ad:

• Click on Share at the bottom right of the ad > Choose About this Ad > Follow on-screen instructions
• Long press on the Ad video > Choose About this Ad > Follow on-screen instructions
• This feature is available in selected countries and we are working on rolling this out globally

Related Links

• Change your personalized ads settings
• TikTok’s Advertising policies
• TikTok Transparency Center