TikTok is typically known to let you steer clear of people you know, setting it apart from other social media platforms, but it seems like that's no longer the case.

Some TikTok users have been complaining that the platform is suggesting accounts based on their contacts, much like what Facebook is known for.

Keep reading to find out how TikTok may be connecting you to people you know and how you can try to take back control.

How TikTok Suggests Your Account to Others

person wearing gloves while using a touchscreen smartphone

There are several ways that TikTok may be connecting you to people you know.

As stated in TikTok's privacy policy, the app's use of personal data includes using your data to:

...to enable you to socialise on the Platform, for example, by allowing other users to identify you via the "Find other friends" function or through their phone contacts;

Related: How to Get on TikTok's "For You" Page (FYP)

When you provide your phone number to TikTok, people can find you using the "Find other friends" feature. This means that even if you haven't opted to share your contacts, people who have may find you on the app.

Furthermore, even if you have declined to sync your contacts in the past, TikTok will send users repeated prompts to sync their contacts over time.

There are other ways TikTok connects you to people and suggests your account. By default, the app suggests your profile “to people who have mutual connections with you”. That includes users who follow or are followed by the same accounts, like how Facebook recommends people to one another who have friends in common.

TikTok can also suggest your account to people who sent links to you or opened links you sent to them, even on other apps.

That means if you share a random TikTok video with a stranger on a dating site, it could suggest your TikTok profile to them, as long as they click on the link. In return, you may receive a notification that they watched it prompting you to follow their account.

TikTok’s privacy policy also notes that if you use third-party services like Twitter or Facebook to “share information about your usage on the Platform with others, these third-party services may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on the Platform”.

Related: How to Download All of the Data TikTok Has About You

How to Limit TikTok Suggesting Your Account to Others

Thankfully, there are ways to prevent the chances of TikTok recommending you to people you know in real life. You can limit people's ability to find your TikTok account by following the steps below:

  1. Go to the settings menu in the top-right of your profile.
  2. Tap Privacy > Suggest your account to others
  3. Toggle off the settings for Contacts, Facebook friends, People with mutual connections, and People who open or send links to you.

This limits TikTok from suggesting your account to other people. If you've listed your age as under 16 these will be disabled by default.

Notice that we said you can "limit", not completely prevent people from finding your account. That's because TikTok warns that even after disable all options, your account will continue to be suggested to people you’re following.

If you want to unsync your phone contacts or Facebook friends, go to Privacy > Sync contacts and Facebook friends, where you can delete all the data related to your contacts and friends that TikTok may have collected from you in the past.

You also have the option of changing your account to a Private account under Privacy if you want to take control of who gets to see and engage with your content.

Is Your Data Completely Private Online?

Platforms like TikTok and other social media sites give you the option to opt out of data-sharing features, and promise that your data is private, but is that ever really true of social platforms?

If you consider that these companies want to improve the chances of getting more visitors, sign ups, screen time, and more on their platforms, this can sometimes be hard to believe.

Although TikTok has introduced more privacy controls over time, when it comes down to it, it seems to be finding workarounds its users aren't always aware of.