Retention & Deletion · Company practice
Retention: kept as long as necessary, with periods varying by type and purpose, and longer after violations
TikTok says it retains information for as long as necessary to provide the Platform and for the other purposes set out in the policy. It also retains information when necessary to comply with contractual and legal obligations, when it has a legitimate business interest (such as improving and developing the Platform and enhancing its safety, security and stability), and for the exercise or defence of legal claims. Retention periods differ by type of information and purpose. For example, when information is processed to provide the Platform, it is kept for as long as you have an account, including Account Information, User Content and Messages. If you violate the Guidelines or Terms, TikTok may remove Information You Provide, including Account Information and/or User Content, from public view immediately but keep your information as necessary to process the violation. The policy gives no specific retention periods.
Supporting quotations
We retain information for as long as necessary to provide the Platform and for the other purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
We also retain information when necessary to comply with contractual and legal obligations, when we have a legitimate business interest to do so (such as improving and developing the Platform, and enhancing its safety, security and stability), and for the exercise or defence of legal claims.
The retention periods will be different depending on the type of information and the purposes for which we use the information.
For example, when we process your information to provide you with the Platform, we keep this information for as long as you have an account.
If you violate our Guidelines or Terms, we may remove Information You Provide including your Account Information and/or User Content from public view immediately but keep your information as is necessary to process the violation.
Qualifications & exceptions
- The account-lifetime period is given as an example for information used to provide the Platform, not as a rule for all information.
- After a violation, content can be hidden from public view immediately while the information is kept as necessary to process the violation.
Not stated here
- No numeric retention periods are given, so how long information is kept after account deletion or for other purposes is unknown from this text.
Cross-references
- qualifies (model-proposed): Delete: remove posted content, delete your account, or request deletion of a specific item through reporting — qualifies: The deletion right is stated without exceptions, while the retention section says information is kept when necessary for legal obligations, legitimate business interests and legal claims, and that information may be kept as necessary to process a violation.