TikTok

Out of all the companies I contacted regarding my corrupted accounts, TikTok was the only one to take action. I emailed TikTok’s legal email address that I found online and although I never received a formal response back from the company, they gave me back my account and allowed me to reset my password and take additional security steps in order to ensure it could not be breached again.

In the early days of the initial hack, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with everything. I almost didn’t notice something happened to my TikTik account. I mainly used the account to send and receive videos with my friends, so the account being hacked proved to be a fruitless mission. At the time I had three Gmail accounts, one created by my college when I was admitted, one for personal use and one for junk/misc., I still had access to all of the email accounts and I started receiving an abnormal amount of emails from TikTok. The emails consisted of follow suggestions, that were all from my contacts from my iCloud and occasional videos TikTok thought I might like.

I decided to check my account and I was unable to login using my credentials. I decided to use the “Forgot Password” option and reset the account. Upon doing so, I was able to gain access however this account was a completely new account, which was linked to my personal email. Confused, I looked at the settings and the profile picture was of a different girl entirely. Essentially someone created a completely new account using my personal email address and changed the credentials of my old account. Unsure as to what the logic was behind creating an entirely new account. Maybe the hacker/hackers thought I wouldn’t login to my TikTok again? Or possibly I was too stupid to even identify there was a problem.

Once I contacted TikTok via email, they gave me back my old account back with the old credentials. My old account consisted of weird German videos of a cat that kind of looked like one of my cats and the account itself felt as though it was violated. It no longer felt like it was mine and it was clear someone else hacked it, viewed all of my messages and completely changed my algorithms. The thought alone made me shiver and I decided the best option was to close the account entirely.

When someone accesses all of your accounts, financial records, medical records, text messages, photos and videos, practically your entire life, you feel completely vulnerable and violated. It’s a feeling you’re unable to shake even if you regain control of your accounts. You feel as though you’ll never have control over your life again and someone knows all your secrets.