We recognise that digital advertising can be complex, but we don’t think it has to be. We strive to communicate our ads practices simply and directly.

Respecting privacy in advertising

We build privacy into TikTok by design so that our community can confidently discover, create, and enjoy diverse and entertaining content. We work toward 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 for our community to use.

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 these features for a particular ad; you can also report the ad if you find it 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, TikTok shows you ads that use information you provide, that we automatically collect about you as you use TikTok, or that advertisers and measurement partners share about you.

• You will receive non-personalized ads based on categories of information that are broadly applicable to you and other users based on the context, such as your country and language, and declared information, like your age. Non-personalized ads may be less relevant to you because these ads are not based on your past activity.
• Depending on your ads settings, we may show you personalized ads, which are ads we think you will be interested in based on information we receive. This may include information about your activities on the app or on our advertising partners' websites and apps or in their stores.

Information we use for all ads

The following general information may be used to show you either personalized or non-personalized ads.

• 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 location information. Learn more about how location information is collected.
• Language information: For example, you may see an ad from an advertiser wanting to reach Spanish speakers if your app language is set to Spanish.
• Demographic information you provide: For example, the age you provide when you sign up for a TikTok account can affect whether TikTok shows you an ad for a car rental service available to people aged 25 and over.

Information we use for personalized ads

The following additional information may be used to show you personalized ads, depending on your ad personalization choices.

• Demographic information we infer: For example, we may infer your gender based on your on-TikTok activity, which can be used to tailor the ads that you see. You can update inferred gender for ads at any time in your ads settings. Any updates apply only to your ads settings and do not affect other TikTok services.
• Interest and Behavioral Information
• On-TikTok activity: TikTok may display ads about things you may be interested in, based on how you view, search, share and like content or interact with creator(s), as well as your previous interactions with similar ads. For example, a pet 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 tagged with the hashtag “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 personalise ads based on the information shared by our Advertisers, measurement and other 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, 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 an 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.

For more information about the types of data that can be used to serve ads, please see our Privacy Policy. Please note that TikTok uses information shared by Advertisers, measurement and other partners, only if they agree to comply with our terms protecting your privacy. You should review the applicable privacy policy for any websites and advertisers that you interact with.

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. Measurement partners are not permitted to use or share such data for any other purposes. 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.

Controlling your ad experience

We provide products and information to help people understand how advertising on TikTok works – including what data is used to show you ads and who is paying for the ads you see.

Managing data usage for ads in different regions

• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, you can control the ads that you see in the following ways.
• First, visit your TikTok app > Settings and privacy > Ads page.
• Use your "Personalized ads" toggle to determine if your on- and off-TikTok activity data should be used to show you personalized ads. Using this setting, you can turn off personalized ads altogether. You’ll still see ads, but they may be less relevant to you.
• For users on iOS 14.5 or later, you can go to your privacy settings and disallow TikTok from tracking your activity across other companies' apps and websites. When turned off, this iOS setting will take precedence over the in-app settings that you have chosen.
• In Android, you can go to your privacy settings and choose to delete or reset the advertising ID, which is an identifier that can be used to track your activity across different apps.

• Visit Your TikTok app > Account > Settings and privacy > Ads page to change whether the ads you see on TikTok can be more tailored to your interests based on data that advertising partners share with us about your activity on their apps and websites. You will always see ads based on what you do on TikTok.
• In iOS, for version 14.5 or later, you can go to privacy settings and disallow TikTok from tracking your activity across other companies' apps and websites. When tracking is turned off, this iOS setting will have precedence over the in-app settings that you have chosen and the targeted advertising toggle described above will not be available. If you would like to enable targeted ads based on your off-TikTok activity, please turn on tracking for TikTok in your iOS device privacy settings.
• In Android, you can go to your privacy settings and choose to delete or reset the advertising ID, which is an identifier that can be used to track your activity across different apps.

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 or the advertiser.

• Click on Share icon 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

• Click on Share icon 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

Related Links

• Change your personalized ads settings
• TikTok's Advertising Policies
• TikTok Transparency Center