Featured Image Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor via Getty
It's that time of the year again, and as we use ChatGPT to find the perfect mulled wine recipe, hang up our MrBeast-themed stockings, and sit by a YouTube video of a crackling fire, the tech Christmas season is here.
While we get artificial intelligence to pen our letter to Cyber Santa, asking for the latest drone, a year's subscription to Spotify, and Elon Musk's mythical autobiography, it's also during the festive period that we get our yearly 'wrapped' results.
Although Spotify Wrapped is the big one, others like Netflix, YouTube, and even Pornhub have jumped on the bandwagon. With up to 183 million US citizens using TikTok every month, and each adult clocking up an average of 53.8 minutes per day, we're surprised the short-form video platform hasn't also cottoned onto the trend.
Especially when you consider that teenagers spend an average of 90 minutes a day on TikTok, there's more than enough data to give us a TikTok Wrapped, so why isn't it following in YouTube's footsteps?
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2025 has been a big one for TikTok, especially following its ban in the USA due to privacy concerns that China is 'spying' on us. If you want to see how many minutes you've watched, whether it's mukbang videos or #booktok grabbing your attention, and if Khaby Lame or Bella Poarch are topping your most-watched lists, you're warned against trying to access your own TikTok Wrapped.
Remembering that there's no official TikTok Wrapped, you’ll have to turn to third-party services that scrape your data and reveal your stats for you.
There are general concerns about what apps like Spotify do with our data when they collate it for our yearly reviews, and while that would likely be another criticism sent TikTok's way, the fact that you have to rely on external companies is an immediate red flag.
As it’s relatively easy to request your data from TikTok and download it in a JSON format, it's then a simple case of uploading the file to an external site so you can get your own glossy TikTok Wrapped that's perfect for sharing on socials.
More than just lamenting how many hours we wasted scrolling through endless prank videos and hunting for the latest viral food hotspot in your city, you could be opening yourselves up to a major data breach.
Although a quick search of 'TikTok Wrapped' will come up with numerous sites and options, this seems like an easy way for bad actors to gain access to our personal information.
TikTok itself is filled with numerous PSA videos warning against various wrapped apps and services, but in a case of the call coming from within the house, many are too busy being blinded by the idea of TikTok Wrapped to see how they could also be in trouble there.
In a time when we are told to be warier than ever about data privacy and data security, the fact that TikTok's own collection methods have been called into question should be enough to put you off handing over anything else just for the sake of an online trend.
