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TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

cnbc.com

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Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#81

Post by snehk »

vorpalhex wrote: post #63
snehk wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China didn't specifically "ban" US social networks because they were US social networks. The companies themselves didn't want to comply with Chinese laws so they cannot operate there. It's the same as Facebook now threatening to leave the EU if they have to comply with EU data protection laws.

They didn't want to comply with laws requiring giving the Chinese government full access to their data.

It really doesn't matter. We can say that it's good that companies like Google or Facebook don't want to be part in any of this or we can say that even the slightest interest in user privacy makes it morally impossible for companies to operate in China. What's simply not true is the idea that Google or Facebook not being in China has anything to do with them being American companies.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#82

Post by Etheryte »

toqy wrote: post #58
Etheryte wrote: post #36

One thing that I found very interesting when I looked into what TikTok does: it's scary good at aggregating data about you. I live in a foreign country, my phone's network is behind a VPN to a different foreign country and I gave the app no extra permissions, yet somehow I still got recommended content from the country where I was born. Since it's a small country there's no way that's a coincidence. I'm both intrigue…

I'd probably be more worried about a flaw in your own setup vs TikTok uniquely being able to circumvent it

I'm all ears if you have any suggestions, so far I haven't seen a plausible explanation though.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#84

Post by McHankHenry »

The title and article smells of China-bad-clickbait.

There's no uncertainty here. Like in every other case, it goes to any company that is willing to purchase it. Overwhelmingly it will be American companies using it for direct marketing.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#85

Post by classified »

partiallypro wrote: post #71

I don't understand what useful information could be harvested, as unlike Google/Facebook there is no massive tracking pixel product that follows you across the web. I'm a massive critic of the CCP, but I don't see what useful information they would get from this. I think a bigger "conspiracy theory" I'd buy into would be the algrorithm exploiting political extremes and pushing insane voices to the top...but every soc…

Behavioral data. If you know how to analyze it, it will give you the ability to predict and manipulate.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#86

Post by capableweb »

waffleiron wrote: post #67

OP changed the title, it nowhere says "any other app".

Reading the title at cnbc right now says "TikTok shares your data more than any other social media app — and it’s unclear where it goes, study says" for me. I guess it was edited to get shorter and within the 80 character limit that HN has for submission titles.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#87

Post by boomboomsubban »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #25

Just ask yourself: who has what incentives? A state actor always desires insight into an adversary. The survival of nations depends on being able to either cooperate with others or subdue those who will not. The result of a state's strategy in these arenas is predominantly determined by their ability to predict the counterpart's behaviors, both at a citizen and leadership level. Why TikTok is not seen as the ultimate…

>Just ask yourself: who has what incentives?

The company for more money? Similar to the incentives behind Google and Facebook.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#88

Post by jjulius »

robbedpeter wrote: post #43
lelandfe wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On that Wikipedia page, the two Robert Epstein sources (one a PNAS paper[1], the other a Politico article[2]) are theoretical ("whether they could be manipulated") and pre-2016. The other main source[3] is similarly theoretical and provides policy recommendations to combat SEME. It also has a Washington Post article[4] discussing a (since-deleted) video that purportedly showed potentially-manipulated differences betw…

>>The 2020 presidential election monitoring project successfully recruited a diverse group of 732 registered voters in three battleground states: Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina. It preserved more than 500,000 ephemeral experiences on Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, and Facebook. These are the fleeting experiences that Big Tech companies use to influence votes and opinions worldwide and that are normally lost fore…

Preface: I'm pretty big on the "fuck Google/Big Tech" train.

>Google's been caught red handed deliberately manipulating political content.

>https://mygoogleresearch.com/

There's no research on that page. Many of the linked articles that this individual has written also are vague on actual details/proof and only contain vague "this could happen!" comments. Beyond that, many of them also end with a plea for more fundraising.

>This guy needs a website team in the biggest way. It's hard to find the information and it's scattershot. It's very frustrating because the work he's doing is solid. Don't let the shitty web presence deter you.

All he needs to do is spend a little more time uploading data and evidence, and less time shoving as many "DONATE" buttons onto his page as he can. None of this looks like solid work, even his television appearances; it looks like someone who goes around throwing out lots and lots of loose speculation while asking to be paid to do so.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#89

Post by duxup »

williamscales wrote: post #77
duxup wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>didn't all data just go to the NSA. "all" is so general that I think it's kinda hard to really address that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

I'm aware of that.

This is what I meant by how hard it is to talk about 'all'. Someone says all and then someone gives an example that's not all and so what are we talking about?

Ultimately I think there are differences between country A and country B's methods and etc.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#90

Post by Ekaros »

saas_sam wrote: post #41
netcan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> China is not a good faith operator. Who is? I don't mean to be trite or contrary, but TikTok is coming into an environment where norms are pretty damned shady. Google as you and the article say, also consume user data quite unethically. FB likewise surveil us for their advertising businesses. They both also happen to host and control a good chunk of political and politically adjacent content within that framework.…

Every tech company executive in the USA is not required to operate as an agent for one political party by threat of being disappeared. Our entire internet is not locked down to prevent political dissidents from sharing their views. Our government doesn't pay to flood our social media networks with astroturfing to create the illusion of popular support for its policies. These things add a more serious tone to the conv…

No, but they intelligence agencies do the same stuff. And private hidden funders of politicians do the astroturfing... I don't really see much difference if it done by government or people who pay the politicians running the government.
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