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TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

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81–90 of 160 posts

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#81
post #24

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? I see a huge bias towards TikTok in headlines 1) TikTok is one of the most popular apps and was the second most downloaded last year [0]. Come on, they are at the top. That's why we talk about them. 2) TikTok has been caught in a lot of privacy scandals that appear to be more egregious than other apps. 3) There's a deep seated fear, and evidence, that Chines…

Yeah the bar is high. But unfortunately people seek for short-term rewards and rarely care about their data leakage.

How did the #DeleteFacebook movement impact the companies business? Not that much I believe. The stocks keep rising. Would be interesting to see what will happen to Bytedance product?

> 3) There's a deep seated fear, and evidence, that Chinese companies share their data with their government.

Can you share the evidence of that please? Apparently Bytedance cut Domestic Engineers' Data Access to TikTok [0]

[0] https://en.pingwest.com/a/6875

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#82
post #52

Too little, too late. Already forced the family to uninstall it and its gone forever. Wish the kids could understand that its spyware with access to a lot of toxic social media.

My Daughter: "Dad let me install TikTok!" Me: "No. It is Chinese spyware." My Daughter: " has TikTok!" Me: " is a Chinese asset!" My Daughter: "No she's not!" Every day.

> My Daughter: " has TikTok!"

> Me: " is a Chinese asset!"

I cannot believe this is allowed on this forum.

IIRC, you are suggesting some individual in your daughter's school, presumably a Chinese ethnic, is a "Chinese asset"? What do you mean by "Chinese asset"?

Edit: It seems I read the asset wrong. See replies below.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#83
post #13
post #9

This is so ridiculous. Google Maps accesses the clipboard. Try it out: copy an address and open maps. So do Facebook and Instagram, I’m sure. The level of paranoia in the Valley is astounding.

Google Maps has a clear use case for accessing the clipboard. If Tok Tok only accessed the clipboard on launch to check for a Tik Tok URL, that might be one thing, but there's no clear reason Tik Tok would need access to the clipboard literally every 3 keystrokes.

What is the clear use case for "accessing the clipboard"?

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#84

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…

[deleted]

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#85
post #24

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…

While since you talk about bias, Why every app(facebook,twitter,youtube....) of US is banned by China? But China's company can earn money in America? Why US government allow this happen? They are huge threat to the safe of America!

[deleted]

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#88
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Daughter: "Dad let me install TikTok!" Me: "No. It is Chinese spyware." My Daughter: " has TikTok!" Me: " is a Chinese asset!" My Daughter: "No she's not!" Every day.

> My Daughter: " has TikTok!" > Me: " is a Chinese asset!" I cannot believe this is allowed on this forum. IIRC, you are suggesting some individual in your daughter's school, presumably a Chinese ethnic, is a "Chinese asset"? What do you mean by "Chinese asset"? Edit: It seems I read the asset wrong. See replies below.

if you accept the premise that tiktok is collecting data for the chinese government, then anyone using the app would indeed be an asset

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#89
post #69

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.

This is why I'm always confused my privacy arguments. When someone says that they want privacy the responses go like:

reference Goebbels: "I have nothing to hide, so I'm not worried"

Downplay: "They only read my emails and everything I write to sell me stuff better. Sometimes I need stuff. They're helping me!" As if it can only be used to sell and nothing else.

World revolves around self: "Well ads don't affect me." Like it doesn't matter that everyone else is affected even if you aren't.

Completely ignoring the fact that if someone can manipulate you to buy stuff they might be able to use it to manipulate you do do other things. I mean we have political ads. And Coke ads aren't there to sell you coke (they are there to make you feel better about your purchase). Frankly, to me it doesn't even matter if no one has done that yet (I'm aware of the clear evidence that people have) but that we're giving people the ability to do this in mass and in very precise ways. That just leads to a potential turn in democracy. "Just educating people" doesn't solve the problem either. Ads are still effective on smart people. So the question is "are the benefits ~~profits~~ worth the cost?" It is reasonable to think "yes", but I'm a resounding "no."

Yes, we use political ads to "manipulate democracy" and the like, but a mass statewide commercial is a very different thing than an individualized ad targeted to a specific person. At least to me these are very different (and we still have regulations on what you can say in political ads). Where do we draw the line? We talk about data a lot here and what we can model with it. What will ads look like in 20-50 years if we don't draw a line in privacy and technology continues to become more powerful? I think individualized ads will look very different. We do need to determine what level of individualization we can target with an ad, and I don't see much of that happening.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#90
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Daughter: "Dad let me install TikTok!" Me: "No. It is Chinese spyware." My Daughter: " has TikTok!" Me: " is a Chinese asset!" My Daughter: "No she's not!" Every day.

> My Daughter: " has TikTok!" > Me: " is a Chinese asset!" I cannot believe this is allowed on this forum. IIRC, you are suggesting some individual in your daughter's school, presumably a Chinese ethnic, is a "Chinese asset"? What do you mean by "Chinese asset"? Edit: It seems I read the asset wrong. See replies below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_(intelligence)
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