---
title: "TikTok Tracks Users With Facial Recognition"
description: "TikTok in China now has an in-video facial recognition search, allowing users to track people across accounts and posts."
date: "2019-09-26"
modified: "2019-10-04"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tiktok-facial-recognition"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Facial recognition"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "privacy"
  - "the digest"
  - "tiktok"
---

# TikTok Tracks Users With Facial Recognition

![An experimental TikTok feature available in China lets users highlight someone's face and search for any other time it appears in a post.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tiktok-facial-recognition.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Face Search

Say you enjoyed a particular person's post on TikTok and want to find more videos they appeared in — regardless of whether they uploaded them with the same account.

A new search feature lets you drag a box over their face on the Chinese version of the popular app. TikTok will then pull up any other post in which that person appears, [according to *Radii*](<https://radiichina.com/tiktok-new-video-search-function-is-from-the-future/>). While useful for the scrolling meme-enjoyer, it's an ostensibly creepy feature that seemingly subjects anyone using the app to behind-the-scenes facial recognition analysis.

https://twitter.com/mbrennanchina/status/1176160937549582336

## Spotty Record

TikTok's new search feature — which also lets users look up and buy whatever clothes people are wearing — isn't the app's first eyebrow-raising privacy decision. In February, TikTok had to pay a $5.7 million fine for [collecting preteens' personal data](<https://futurism.com/ftc-tiktok-record-fine-spying-pre-teens>), and is now reportedly [censoring controversial topics](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/tiktok-censor-app-china-tiananmen>) on behalf of the Chinese government.

As it stands now, it's unclear when or if the new search feature will make it to the U.S. — or whether users who've posted their faces all over TikTok will get a heads up.

**READ MORE:** [TikTok's New "Video Search" Function is From the Future](<https://radiichina.com/tiktok-new-video-search-function-is-from-the-future/>) \[*Radii*\]

**More on apps:** *[China Appears to Be Censoring Hong Kong Protests From TikTok](<https://futurism.com/china-hong-kong-censoring-protests-tiktok>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)