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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

#151
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went trough this post earlier. Unfortunately the video has been removed for some reason. > 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 s…

I don't use or like tiktok, but that post also came across as super fishy to me. Lots of it boiled down to "I'm a software engineer, trust me" with a good amount of FUD thrown in (going on about GPS data when the app doesn't even request the Location permission? complaining the app can see your screen resolution?). I'm sure the truth is somewhere in between but tiktok is the beating-horse of the day so you'll see all…

Exactly. Moreover, r/video doesn't seem the proper place to share the reverse-engineering analysis.

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

#152
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 went trough this post earlier. Unfortunately the video has been removed for some reason. > 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 s…

Oh, it seems that from Android 11, it became much harder to see the list of installed apps.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23692964

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

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long? America has problems, but your order-of-magnitude calibration is way off if you think a concentration-camp operating (i.e. the real kind with over a million people who committed no crime and are held just for their beliefs and culture) expansionist (Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan) totalitarian (speech is monitored and punished in a "go to prison, right away…

On a per capita basis, the US has more people in prison than there are Uyghurs in Chinese camps and Chinese residents in prison combined. The US invaded Iraq for oil colonization.

Your whataboutism didn't mention the ongoing protests that are working to fix the problems you're referencing which would never be allowed in China.

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

#155
post #15
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.

My clipboard frequently holds sensitive or even compromising information. If it isn't providing direct access to my finances, it might be something that could be used to blackmail me. No, these random apps are not my spouse. They should not get access to sensitive info without explicit permission.

I think the point is that almost 20 apps 'got caught' reading the clipboard but people are only singling out TikTok because it's Chinese.

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

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I'm more concerned about my platform being subject to the control of my own government. Because I don't care very much about foreign governments given I happen to be a western citizen that has nothing to do with that countries. But what about ours, do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long?

> do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long? America has problems, but your order-of-magnitude calibration is way off if you think a concentration-camp operating (i.e. the real kind with over a million people who committed no crime and are held just for their beliefs and culture) expansionist (Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan) totalitarian (speech is monitored and punished in a "go to prison, right away…

Yes, you're right. My mistake was talking about better/worse governments, while we don't have to choose at all. I should rephrase it as: is our government good? I'm sure nobody can say it is, whichever government it may be. So that's why I find uncomfortable to hand all my data over to the ruling party in my country, while I don't care what a random CCP functionary can learn about the cafeterias I frequently go to.

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

#158
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 s…

>> 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?

Not the parent commenter, but you may find this paper informative/insightful:

"Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data in China" (2017) [0]

Not by any means the only source, just happens to be one I read recently.

[0] https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/978019068...

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

#159
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not how spies work in the real world. Kompromat, bribery, and threats. Not watching kids videos.

The intelligence apparatus of a nation-state is far more encompassing than just spies. And no one has to actually watch any videos for the above-mentioned use cases. It's an engineering assignment for data science and tech teams, not spies. As well, there's a very hazy line between government and industry interests in China, greatly expanding the potential use cases of sigint derived from such incidental data leakage…

Indeed, spies are just a single tool and have a very specific use cases — big-data, analytics and data science is where the big nation states are at nowadays.

We don't know much about China's systems here, but looking at XKeyscore [0] (NSA, via Snowden leaks) is likely to be somewhat insightful re function and capabilities.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKeyscore

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

#160
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Android, you can happily select some text then hit Share (same menu as Copy and Cut).

That pattern is mainly used to open an app to a specific activity. eg. opening google search to a particular search phrase, or opening the dialer to a particular phone number. I can't see it working for when you're writing a email, and want to include a link/quote/image.

But that's exactly what I just did. Highlighted some text in a news article and Share'd to my email client, it dropped the text in, quoted, to the body of an email with the link to the article under it.
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