71–80 of 160 posts
Just wanted to inform audience here that TikTok is blocked in China. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma...
Interesting, is this more proof that the Chinese gov't is using it as a spying app?
The security implications of allowing communications on a platform that is subject to the absolute control of a foreign government, seems like a very very bad idea. That can be a lesson learned the easy way or the hard way.
Especially a foreign government that is considered a top adversary by the US and vice-versa.
Great to see another layer of transparency in ios14. Bit I wonder why everyone talking about one specific app? I see a huge bias towards TikTok in headlines "iOS 14 caught TikTok and other apps spying on the clipboard" [0] "iOS 14 beta shows apps like TikTok still spy on your iPhone" [1] There a bunch of apps like VICE, Google News, WSJ that has been caught doing exactly the same. [2] I may find the explanation why T…
> Bit I wonder why everyone talking about one specific app? In this particular case, I think it's because the person who apparently discovered it claims that other apps "don't collect anywhere near the same amount of data that TikTok does". [0] > For what it's worth I've reversed the Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter apps. They don't collect anywhere near the same amount of data that TikTok does, and they sure…
> I'm getting a lot of DM's asking me to prove the majority of this with a paper and snippets of the offending code. I have a decent amount of my notes on my other laptop that recently had a motherboard failure and the majority of that data is on the laptop's SSD. It's a macbook pro, so recovering the data isn't exactly super simple. I have some frida scripts that I pushed to my git server as well as some markdown files + conversation logs I've had with exploit devs, but not much else. In order to get everyone the proof they require, I'll likely need to reverse the app all over again which isn't something I have time for right now.
That sounds like "dog ate my homework", but well, sh*t may happens.
> Phone hardware (cpu type, number of course, hardware ids, screen dimensions, dpi, memory usage, disk space, etc)
What so special about it?
> Other apps you have installed (I've even seen some I've deleted show up in their analytics payload - maybe using as cached value?)
That interesting indeed. I heard some developers did that as well (Uber-Lift case ?) but it really strange that Android enables that. I'm not an Android dev, but I guess you can retrieve that through PackageManager?
> Everything network-related (ip, local ip, router mac, your mac, wifi access point name)
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/net/wifi/Wif...
wifiManager.getConnectionInfo()
> Whether or not you're rooted/jailbroken
My bank app does the same as well as plenty of other apps. Again, I mostly iOS guy, so not familiar with Android ecosystem that well.
> They set up a local proxy server on your device for "transcoding media", but that can be abused very easily as it has zero authentication
That sucks. Can anyone explain why they do that?
> On top of all of the above, they weren't even using HTTPS for the longest time. They leaked users' email addresses in their HTTP REST API, as well as their secondary emails used for password resets
Bold statement without any facts, tbh.
I don't wanna play devil's advocate and I don't support CCP or a big fan of TikTok.
I really enjoy reading well-made security research that unveil security valuation in Chinese app. [0]
But hardly rely on the posts without clear any data reinforcement
Most of the anti-TikTok comments that have emerged recently are beyond hysterical. We are arguing about China using this app as a primary nexus of intelligence gathering, in a world where they already have the US government’s entire OPM database?[1] A lot of apps are doing the stupid clipboard detection thing. As others have commented, there’s reasons for this that range from spam detection to link shortening. It’s l…
Platforms like TikTok are active propaganda tools already, and can be used to shape discourse in democracies.
It is a major concern whether such tools are owned by foreign governments (tikTok) or private companies who do not need to comply with any regulations(Facebook twitter) etc.
The security implications of allowing communications on a platform that is subject to the absolute control of a foreign government, seems like a very very bad idea. That can be a lesson learned the easy way or the hard way.
> a platform that is subject to the absolute control of a foreign government I'm sure you would argue that Google, MS and Apple are completely independent of the US government.
Great to see another layer of transparency in ios14. Bit I wonder why everyone talking about one specific app? I see a huge bias towards TikTok in headlines "iOS 14 caught TikTok and other apps spying on the clipboard" [0] "iOS 14 beta shows apps like TikTok still spy on your iPhone" [1] There a bunch of apps like VICE, Google News, WSJ that has been caught doing exactly the same. [2] I may find the explanation why T…
> In China WeChat blocks direct links to their competitors. So apps like Taobao or Douyin have to find a workaround for deeplinks. I'm going to start by saying "No they don't." They don't _have_ to do anything. They decided to. > In WeChat the link is not clickable. To see the content user has to copy full text and go to the Douyin. The app will read the clipboard They could have chosen to give you a place to put lin…
[0] https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029309/wechat-s...
> Chinese users have been complaining that WeChat’s practice of blocking certain apps is a huge blow to user experience. But WeChat isn’t the only one doing it. Chinese tech companies constantly add services to their own ecosystems and block services from other companies, leading some tech watchers to say that China’s mobile internet has been split into pieces.
Hope they can fix it one day
The security implications of allowing communications on a platform that is subject to the absolute control of a foreign government, seems like a very very bad idea. That can be a lesson learned the easy way or the hard way.
I honestly think we give Chinese apps too much equal footing. In about 5-8 years, when China has insane surveillance network around the world (they already have), this comment is going to sound the most sensible thing to do - blanket ban any application developed and served by the CCP or similar government. People teeter-totter about righteousness and freedom of choice, but IMO we need to stop feeding the CCP with mo…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I honestly think we give Chinese apps too much equal footing. In about 5-8 years, when China has insane surveillance network around the world (they already have), this comment is going to sound the most sensible thing to do - blanket ban any application developed and served by the CCP or similar government. People teeter-totter about righteousness and freedom of choice, but IMO we need to stop feeding the CCP with mo…
The CCP has already shown they’re willing to abuse TikTok to stir unrest in the USA, you aren’t even making a theoretical argument. I’m a lot more worried about China than Russia, when it comes to bad behavior by state actors.
I dont have any memory of "CCP abuses TikTok to stir unrest in USA" being reported. Is there really such evidence?
If there is evidence, then please just ban the goddamn app out of any mobile smart phone platforms. It's too dangerous to open the lid of such mass bring-washing machine. Even in the Arab-spring, it was just passively allowing the information to propagate organically. No one with sane judgement should allow these apps being used as manipulation tools by any minority group...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> a platform that is subject to the absolute control of a foreign government I'm sure you would argue that Google, MS and Apple are completely independent of the US government.
I don't want to put words in your mouth but if you are implying that the US influence over Google, MS, and Apple is comparable to China's influence over TikTok and other Chinese companies then that is an utterly false equivalence. I don't have links but it is well established the role and influence CCP has in Chinese companies and US companies have gone to great legal lengths to restrict the US Government's involveme…
Yeah, they spend a fortune on lobbying - nonetheless they are very compliant with the US "national security". Keep them downvotes coming, Snowden never blew a whistle.
It seems like unless you need direct access to the camera or it’s a game a web version should be fine.