TikTok tracked Android users using a trick banned by Google

TikTok reportedly tracked Android users by collecting “unique identifiers” for over a year till November 2019. The TikTok Android app collected media access control (MAC) addresses of Android devices to show custom ads, as per a report by The Wall Street Journal. Collecting MAC addresses of Android users is not allowed by Google and violates Google’s privacy policies.
Google has restricted developers from tracking Android users through MAC addresses and IMEI numbers back in 2015 but TikTok managed to get past that through a loophole. The report claimed that at least 350 other Android apps did the same. As for TikTok, it continued to track users for 15 months and only ended the practice in November 2019.
In a statement to The Verge, TikTok said, ““We constantly update our app to keep up with evolving security challenges, and the current version of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses. We always encourage our users to download the most current version of TikTok.”