It’s funny. It’s fashionable. It’s putting the biometrics of your iris on the market for free

The ACLU warns that a TikTok tendency related to Euphoriaa controversial teen drama on cable television.

More than 700,000 videos of iris close-ups have been posted on TikTok, a development believed to be tied to an episode of the show. A large majority of the images are of women, most of whom are young.

Of course, the danger is that irises are biometric identifiers.

As they become more common in identity verification, people who have posted close-ups (anywhere, not just ICT Tac), these posters will not be able to submit their irises when required or will find themselves victims of identity theft.

And it’s not just irises on a screen, the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out. Hardware and software exist to check a person from 40 feet away using their irises.

Similarly, fingerprints and finger geometry are painstakingly analyzed from images extracted from online photos, according to the civil rights group.

The ACLU says it was rebuffed when it asked TikTok executives if they had a business partner who profits from trafficking iris scans. The same would be true when asked if the company itself, which is owned by a China-based company ByteDancecollects biometric data.

At this point, TikTok officials likely view the company’s defense effort against alleged biometric data privacy abuse as a cost of doing business. In particular, having updated the platform’s terms of service to explicitly state that it “may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information.”

Article topics

ACCU | biometric data | biometrics | data collection | iris biometrics | confidentiality | social media