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

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

#121

Post by ethbr0 »

blakesterz wrote: post #2

I found the actual report this is based on even more interesting: https://app.urlgeni.us/blog/new-research-across-200-ios-apps... Just a few of the highlights: Magazine apps had the highest number of total network contacts (28), and the highest percentage of third party domain contacts (93%) Social apps, followed by Games apps, made the fewest number of network contacts, 6 and 7 respectively. Apps making the most num…

Agreed, the underlying was more interested than the summary. And also seems to be a case of measuring what's conveniently measurable.

The fact that {product} has only 1 connection to {product first party domain} doesn't say a lot about anything, given they could be internally proxying to and from who knows how many partners?

It'd be more helpful to at least see total traffic per domain.

It made me curious that the highest "first-party ratio" companies tended to be tech companies capable of realizing their own architectures (Amazon/Google/Apple).

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

#122

Post by rootsudo »

cm2012 wrote: post #24
robbedpeter wrote: post #5

It's not unclear at all. It's Chinese data harvesting software. They'll do token public appeasement to avoid negative pressure, but every feature in the app is designed to collect biometrics and behavioral data. China is not a good faith operator. Given the data needed to influence public opinion and voting, they will engage in manipulation favorable to their interests. That alone is sufficient to run tiktok at a los…

TikTok should be banned in the US. China banned all of our homegrown social networks, its pretty standard international precedent to ban theirs, given the security risks.

It was tried, but people cried racism. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/politics/trump-executive-orde...

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

#123

Post by rootsudo »

kelnos wrote: post #108
cm2012 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok should be banned in the US. China banned all of our homegrown social networks, its pretty standard international precedent to ban theirs, given the security risks.

I think it's too late for that. If we tried to ban TikTok in the US, there'd be a public outcry.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/politics/trump-executive-orde...

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

#124

Post by dymk »

duxup wrote: post #113
dahfizz wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was literally an executive order which banned TikTok if the Chinese parent company did not sell the platform[1]. That's a pretty real "tried to ban tiktok". [1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13942

To me an executive order doomed to fail in the courts really isn't a real attempt.

Pray tell what a real attempt looks like to you?

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

#125

Post by karaterobot »

netcan wrote: post #26
robbedpeter wrote: post #5

It's not unclear at all. It's Chinese data harvesting software. They'll do token public appeasement to avoid negative pressure, but every feature in the app is designed to collect biometrics and behavioral data. China is not a good faith operator. Given the data needed to influence public opinion and voting, they will engage in manipulation favorable to their interests. That alone is sufficient to run tiktok at a los…

>> 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.…

I think it would be a mistake for anyone to conclude that because none of these companies is good, they're all equally bad. There is a lesser and greater evil in this case.

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

#126

Post by jdlshore »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #100
Karunamon wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries deciding that foreigners can't use their citizen's data willy-nilly is neither authoritarian nor over-reach, and neither is restricting those foreigners from access when they don't comply. For a generally accepted instance, see the EU GDPR.

I just have a hard time accepting that the people who made every website implement a cookie warning that is equivalent to the “don’t use in bathtub” stickers all over appliances know enough about to write airtight laws that would actually solve any of this.

The GDPR is an excellent law and has nothing to do with the cookie warnings you see. I’m speaking as someone who read it carefully for implementing compliance in a small business.

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

#127

Post by adlorger »

classified wrote: post #85
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.

1. Having Data 2. Using it to Predict 3. Using it to Manipulate

There are major, major leaps from collection to then even having effective prediction models. Prediction is hard, especially when it comes to longer term behaviors.

Manipulation is extremely hard especially when the content space is so crowded.

My fear of TikTok is far more mundane. It just dulls us into the most passive form of entertainment the world has ever known making us a basically disengaged, lifeless people. Its the modal opposite in life to 'touching grass'.

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

#128

Post by t-writescode »

tupac_speedrap wrote: post #14
saturdaysaint wrote: post #3

I feel like TikTok is significantly underdiscussed, almost like the tech and business press are assuming it's a flash-in-the-pan more similar to Snapchat than Facebook. It is almost certainly having a major impact on the business of some of the most prominent publicly traded companies in the US, yet there are just a handful of articles discussing their impact on Facebook's disastrous quarterly results.

The users of TikTok are mostly teenagers and young adults, that's why. Nearly everybody in journalism is late 20s or 30+. They just don't get it, though to be fair vine had a similar type of content and that failed.

There is absolutely a strong 20s-30s and even 40s userbase on TikTok. “The Algorithm”, though, is very very good at only showing people what they want to see, so much so that two people can have wildly different experiences.

For example, my TikTok is full of LGBTQ+, PNW housing complaints, DnD and religion.

Edit: and a good percentage of them are around 30.

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

#129

Post by davidjfelix »

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…

It's pretty easy to derive longitude with some accuracy simply from active hours. Combine that with population densities and your guesses might get closer, combine that with how long you dwell on some videos or what videos you like and you get closer. Your Opsec isn't as good as you think, it's just nobody has been watching. If you combine statistical guesswork across hundreds of vectors its very easy to narrow your target to a creepy extent. Eliminating some easy leaks is the first step to good opsec but so is reducing your interaction and adding a little chaos.

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

#130

Post by seneca »

duxup wrote: post #113
dahfizz wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was literally an executive order which banned TikTok if the Chinese parent company did not sell the platform[1]. That's a pretty real "tried to ban tiktok". [1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13942

To me an executive order doomed to fail in the courts really isn't a real attempt.

The possibility of failure is inherently involved in "attempting". Otherwise it's just "doing".
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