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TikTok requests access to devices on local network

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Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#141

Post by reillyse »

giantrobot wrote: post #140
reillyse wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only actual issue with this setup for citizens of the US is that US citizens like to be the people with access to the data and doing the spying. What you have described, a state intelligence service with access to loads of user data that they happily use for spying is what the US has normalized. Collecting all this data is par for the course (Snowden exposed that pretty conclusively) and non US citizens have no r…

AFAIK Calm and Insight don't have hundreds of millions of users nor is the CCP on their corporate boards. But with explanations provided by the apps as to why they want network device access they probably shouldn't be trusted. As for the data collection, TikTok/ByteDance is definitely going to store it. They wouldn't collect it otherwise. To the utility of the data, if they've got MAC addresses of devices on your hom…

My point is that this just appears to be xenophobia and is completely hypocritical. Nearly every app on my phone asks to access the local network.It's a thing. It's not unusual in the slightest. The problem seems to be that this company is based in China. And we don't like China. Maybe that is not what you in particular don't like (I get that you don't like FB) but that is the reason why this is a topic conversation at all. So in effect what the people in this thread are saying is that American companies (and by direct link the US gov) are allowed to spy on people, but foreign governments should not be allowed. That seems like a huge double standard. For the record, I personally would prefer no governments were spying on me - but that doesn't seem to be on the table.

Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#142

Post by sunshineforever »

swiley wrote: post #71
uniqueuid wrote: post #36

Just to add: Scanning networks to gather data seems pretty popular these days - smart tvs have done so, and even the ebay site used to portscan visitors [1]. [edit] And of course, there's WebRTC leaking your local IP - which ublock origin can specifically block [2]. [1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ebay-port-sca... [2] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Prevent-WebRTC-from-l...

That's a clear violation of the CFAA. This crime carries prison time. How come they threw teenagers in prison but not the people responsible for doing it en mass?

Wait, so using a program like wireshark to scan a network is illegal in and of itself??

I thought you had to use the information nefariously for there to be a crime.

How can receiving broadcasts be illegal?

Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#144

Post by yc12340 »

nicce wrote: post #125
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #88

For some technical context: this dialog pops up the first time an app attempts to send a packet to a local device. A "common" reason why this happens are actually your own network devices if you're connected on wifi. For instance sending a custom DNS query to the wifi advertised DNS server (if it's the router) will cause that dialog. Same thing happens if you happen to have a router redirect certain resources to itse…

More context, especially resolving link-local DNS names (those ending with local, per RFC 6762) requires local network access. For iOS devices, Apple has summed this pretty well[1]. Yes, if permission required on below: Making an outgoing TCP connection — yes Listening for and accepting incoming TCP connections — no Sending a UDP unicast — yes Sending a UDP multicast — yes Sending a UDP broadcast — yes Receiving an i…

This sounds like it might help against DNS rebinding attacks, — at the cost of breaking interchangeability between DNS names and IP addresses.

Not sure, if such policy is a good idea, especially if the permission prompt automatically appears upon network activity without explicit developer intention. This will simply condition users to click "OK" without understanding what's going on.

Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#146

Post by lloydatkinson »

po1nter wrote: post #31
lloydatkinson wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For MS I suspect either incompetence or laziness and just checking all the permissions (because a lot of Teams seems poorly thought out and designed by committee, probably an “agile” one too). As for Tick Tock it’s obviously spyware meant for direct user identification. How anyone can use it when it’s uploading their biometric information (face, voice) to the CCP is beyond stupidity.

It's TikTok* and do you have any evidence to support what you're saying or you're just pulling this from thin air?

Tick Tock, thanks.

Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#147

Post by e_proxus »

reillyse wrote: post #141
giantrobot wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK Calm and Insight don't have hundreds of millions of users nor is the CCP on their corporate boards. But with explanations provided by the apps as to why they want network device access they probably shouldn't be trusted. As for the data collection, TikTok/ByteDance is definitely going to store it. They wouldn't collect it otherwise. To the utility of the data, if they've got MAC addresses of devices on your hom…

My point is that this just appears to be xenophobia and is completely hypocritical. Nearly every app on my phone asks to access the local network.It's a thing. It's not unusual in the slightest. The problem seems to be that this company is based in China. And we don't like China. Maybe that is not what you in particular don't like (I get that you don't like FB) but that is the reason why this is a topic conversation…

Nearly every app?! What apps do you actually use? I’ve only ever seen the prompt a few times, and always for pretty obvious reasons (UniFi, Prompt, VLC, etc.)

Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#148

Post by Yizahi »

judge2020 wrote: post #57
colechristensen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it was never shown that they export those clipboard contents to homebase When it comes to an app gathering data for a company, is anybody really willing to give the app makers the benefit of the doubt? If there is information available, somebody is going to take it and try to squeeze a penny out of it. Not everybody, but when it gives you a competitive advantage it has a tendency to grow.

The cool thing about phones is that you can MITM yourself and see what apps are sending, assuming they don't certificate pin (which TikTok doesn't). The person that reported this during the beta period didn't find any evidence when doing so. https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/fxgi06/not_new_news...

There is also another cool feature of moderns phones - updates. Unless a corporation can prove that each and every single release and test version in the past and the future didn't and will not do something, then it is always possible that some versions did this or will be doing in the future.

Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#149

Post by godelski »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #95
swiley wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unauthorized network access? Literally the whole point of the thing.

I would argue the point was the opposite. It began with a request for authorization.

Consent is tricky. Many people are not aware of what they are giving authorization to. That would make it uninformed consent. Add dark patterns in and I think it is easy to say that some people are not only unaware of what they are authorizing, but purposefully being misled.

Let's be real, most people are tech illiterate. If someone can't read a contract and there is no one there to explain it to them, then they are not engaging in informed consent.

Of course we have to ask if this is ethical or not. But let's not boil the conversation down to "we asked, so it is right." One side is arguing that the person didn't give informed consent and the other side is arguing that consent was given simply because a button was pressed.

It's honestly an ethical discussion of if this is right or not.

Re: TikTok requests access to devices on local network

#150

Post by godelski »

xvector wrote: post #130
teawrecks wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people blindly accept terms of service.

It's not people's fault that terms of service are intentionally designed to be as long-winded as possible if you want any hope of using a product or service.

Team of lawyers and psychologists vs teach illiterate user. Seems like a fair fight to me.
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