It is one of the most downloaded applications by the French in 2022, and it is even number 1 in the ranking of free applications on the AppStore in April 2023: CapCut. Largely powered by TikTok, the app has been causing a stir for several months now. And for good reason, it’s owned by the same company: ByteDance. Initially reserved for editing, it is used to promote new filters.
In recent weeks, many videos on the Chinese platform have allowed CapCut to experience explosive popularity, thanks to a button indicating that a video has been made with this tool. By pressing this button, the Internet user is automatically redirected to the App Store or Play Store and invited to install the application.
One recent TikTok trend, which allows you to add a looping image of actor Pedro Pascal eating to any video, for example, has 1.2 million uses. Others offer netizens the chance to see his aged face appear, or to imagine himself with long hair.
TikTok’s secret weapon
But CapCut, owned by Bytedance, above all allows the Chinese company to benefit from a new heavyweight in the technology sector, in addition to its TikTok social network. The craze is such that CapCut is now downloaded more than TikTok.
However, the app is not in its infancy. Released in 2020 in its current form (the app had several Chinese versions since 2017 before its “internationalized” version), CapCut has for years allowed internet users to do video editing, with transitions and other effects, but also retouching. photographic.
Everything (almost) free, since the basic functions are accessible to everyone before having to pay a few euros to benefit from more elaborate features and effects. A tool for apprentice videographers, officially accessible from the age of 13, which allows effective creations adapted to social networks in a few minutes.
Massive data collection
And with this ease of use and endless possibilities, it’s quickly tempting to create CapCut creations. But just like its big sister TikTok, the app doesn’t shy away from the idea of collecting data from its users.
In its privacy policy, CapCut states that the app collects and processes “information about you when you create an account, download content, or otherwise interact with the services.” More specifically, CapCut indicates that it collects, among other things, the IP address, the phone model, the location, but also, of course, the photos and videos uploaded to the application.
This information can be communicated to service providers, advertising partners but also to the police, recall the regulation. Regarding the retention period of your data, CapCut does not set any limits.
Please note that this information is officially stored in the United States and Singapore. However, it is advisable, as with TikTok, to be careful with the data that is transmitted to the application, to the extent that the latter can be sent to China. For the moment passed under the radars of the various international and national control authorities, CapCut could soon become the new application to watch closely.
Source: BFM TV
