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

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

#101

Post by Gatsky »

vulcan01 wrote: post #57
nsxwolf wrote: 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.

In my experience it is a lot easier to tell your friends that you don't have any social media, rather than saying that you don't have a specific social media app/account/thing. Why? It's harder to understand why someone wouldn't install TikTok when they already have Snapchat/Instagram/everything else. (I'm a high school student, abstaining from social media other than HN.) Edit: Have you tried explaining to your daug…

HN is social media?

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

#104

Post by ls612 »

radikalerludwig wrote: post #70
rdlecler1 wrote: post #55

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.

The US has an independent judiciary which will rule on disputes between the government and Google/Apple/MS. China does not. It is really that simple.

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

#105

Post by mike_d »

numair wrote: post #46

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…

The OPM database was a force multiplier, not a direct source of valuable data.

What it allows the Chinese government to do is filter any other source of data (such as TikTok) and exclude anyone in the US who doesn't have a security clearance. You then have vastly less raw intelligence to sift and try to find the accidental video someone posted with a whiteboard full of secrets in the background.

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

#106

Post by ebg13 »

erk__ wrote: post #54
ebg13 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

They do it to get around very anti competitive behaviour. WeChat pretty much have monopoly on chat in China so if you want to get into that market I guess you have to come up with some way around it. Though I agree that a button that would activate it would likely have been a better way to do it. Even if they did not do anything nefarious this really makes it look like it was.

Spying on users is a dishonorable way to get around another corporate's anti-competitive behavior. Because it was not the only extremely obvious viable option (I mentioned a clearly honest obvious alternative), we have to conclude that they desire to act dishonorably.

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

#107

Post by criddell »

Gatsky wrote: post #101
vulcan01 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience it is a lot easier to tell your friends that you don't have any social media, rather than saying that you don't have a specific social media app/account/thing. Why? It's harder to understand why someone wouldn't install TikTok when they already have Snapchat/Instagram/everything else. (I'm a high school student, abstaining from social media other than HN.) Edit: Have you tried explaining to your daug…

HN is social media?

I think it is, at least as much as Reddit is as well. And before that Digg and Slashdot.

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

#108

Post by ebg13 »

zkid18 wrote: post #76
ebg13 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

That a big dispute in Sina tech. [0] [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 Chi…

> Hope they can fix it one day

Taobao/Douyin/etc could save face today by giving you a place to enter links instead of spying.

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